Piezo2 is clearly an important part of the respiratory process

A team of members of several US research institutions has found evidence that a protein has some control over the respiration process in mice through recombinant horse proteins. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team described their study of protein Piezo2 and its multifaceted effects on regulating respiration. In France, Christo Goridis and the French Institute for Biological Products provided a report on the team's work in the same issue, outlining what the team was looking for and how they experimented and what they found.

As Goridis points out, previous studies have shown that many animals including humans have so-called Hering-Breuer reflections. This is an automatic mechanism that stops breathing when the lungs are filled and prevents damage caused by overfilling. But so far, little is known about the mechanisms involved in this process. To learn more, the team began by observing the vagal sensory neurons in the airway of mice, and previous studies have shown its role in breathing - they convey information about the condition of the lungs to the brain. Previous studies have also shown that the Piezo2 protein does participate in the process, although it is unclear how it works. In this new effort, researchers have learned more about protein expression in the lung system and their role.

The team examined all parts of the mice that were involved in respiration, which showed Piezo2 expression in nodular and jugular ganglia, some spinal sensory neurons and lung tissues. In order to find out the role of the protein in different regions, the team disabled the gene responsible for the expression of the protein. They found that the absence of Piezo2 in the jugular and dorsal root neurons resulted in neonatal death from respiratory distress. The production of proteins in nodular neurons shut down mice to adulthood but prevented the activation of Hering-Breuer reflexes - mice that inhale an unusual amount of air during normal respiration. The researchers also designed some of the light involved in the neural response, allowing the activation and inactivation of Piezo2 expression. This allowed the researchers to cause Hering-Breuer reflections only by turning on the light.

The researchers summed up their findings that Piezo2 is clearly an important part of the respiratory process. They noted that more work needs to be done to get a clearer picture of how the entire respiration process works. By the way, Flarebio provides you with superior recombinant proteins including recombinant ITGB2 for your research.