© L. Bernal et al./Science Advances 2021
Odontoblasts containing the ion channel TRPC5 (green) tightly pack the area between the pulp and the dentin in a mouse's molar. The cells' long-haired extensions fill the thin canals in dentin that extend towards the enamel.
Odontoblasts containing the ion channel TRPC5 (green) tightly pack the area between the pulp and the dentin in a mouse's molar. The cells' long-haired extensions fill the thin canals in dentin that extend towards the enamel.
The protein, TRPC5, is an ion channel: a molecular tube that can open and shut, letting ions through that trigger electrical impulses. It appears in several parts of the body - in fact, when researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in the US began to examine it 15 years ago, they looked at its effect in skin.
The researchers were able to show that the protein itself was highly sensitive to cold, but it didn't seem to trigger any physical responses. In a paper they published in 2011, mice without the protein in their skin weren't any more sensitive to the cold.
"We hit a dead end," says team member Katharina Zimmermann, now an electrophysiologist at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany. But she continued to mull the problem over with David Clapham, a neurobiologist at HHMI, and their fellow researchers.
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