Expression and identification of olfactory receptors in sciatic nerve and dorsal root ganglia of rats

• Olfactory receptors (ORs) are present in peripheral nerves.
• ORs are differentially expressed in sciatic nerve and DRGs after sciatic nerve injury.
• ORs are up-regulated in primary culture of Schwann cells under H2O2 stimulation.

The olfactory receptor (OR) genes are expressed mainly in the cell membrane of olfactory sensory neurons of the nasal epithelium, and the binding of specific odorant ligands to OR proteins leads to odor detection. ORs are also expressed in non-olfactory tissues and cells, but their functions are often elusive. In this study, microarray analysis was used to detect the presence of ORs in peripheral nerves. We found that a number of ORs were differentially expressed in sciatic nerve and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) following sciatic nerve injury. The expression and expression profile of several ORs in sciatic nerve were verified by in situ hybridization and real time quantitative RT-PCR. We also observed that the expression of some ORs in primary culture of Schwann cells was up-regulated under H2O2 stimulation. Overall, all the results suggest that there may be a possible relationship between the differential expression of ORs in injured peripheral nerves and peripheral nerve regeneration.