Discussion
These findings suggest that sensory neurons might have developmental or homeostatic effects within the prostate. Further studies are warranted to assess the role of sensory neurons and the sensory neuropeptides on prostatic development and on proliferation in the presence of pro-inflammatory stimuli such as bacterial infection or tumor cells.
Methods
To identify the degree of sensory innervation in the prostate, we utilized state-of-the-art tissue clearing and microscopy to visualize sensory innervation in the different lobes of the mouse prostate. To determine whether sensory nerves have a role in regulating proliferation within the prostate, we used an intersectional genetic and toxin approach to ablate peptidergic sensory nerves systemically.
Results
We found that sensory neurons are abundant in the prostate both in nerve bundles along the vasculature and as independent nerve fibers wrapped around prostatic acini in a net-like fashion. In addition to the dense innervation of the prostate, we found that Calca haploinsufficiency, the genotype control for our intersectional ablation model, results in a diminished level of Ki67 staining in the stromal compartment of the dorsal lobe and a diminishing Ki67 trend in other lobes.