College of Dentistry | University of Florida

Jianguo G. Gu

Jianguo G. Gu

Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

Neuroscience Division
Associate Professor

Phone:352-273-6764
E-mail: jgu@dental.ufl.edu

  • Ph.D., University of Manitoba (Canada), 1994
  • M.B., Shanghai Medical University (China), 1984

Main Interests

Somatosensory information including pain, temperature, and touch is first carried by primary sensory afferent fibers and then conveyed to the spinal cord dorsal horn (DH).Following sensory processing and integration in the DH, the sensory signals are further relay to brain regions including thalamus and other structures.The sensory signals may be exaggerated at different sites on the way to the brain under many pathological conditions to result in so called pathological pain, a very common clinical problem that has no good treatment.Research in our laboratory has been focusing on cellular, synaptic, and molecular mechanisms involving:

  1. sensory transmission to the DH
  2. sensory processing by DH neurons and
  3. sensory projection to the brain.
  4. Synaptic plasticity in DH
  5. Ligand-gated ion channels in somatosensory system

The goal of our research is to provide specific targets for effective treatment of pathological pain.Currently, the major techniques in our lab include patch-clamp recordings from neurons in spinal slice preparations and cultured systems, immunocytochemical staining, optical imaging, and molecular biological approaches.

Publications

  • Nakatsuka, T. and Gu, J.G (2001) ATP P2X receptor-mediated enhancement of glutamate release and evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents in dorsal horn neurons of the rat spinal cord. J Neurosci. 21:6522-6531.
  • Nakatsuka, T.,Mena, N., Ling, J., and Gu, J.G (2001) ATP-evoked substance-P release from rat primary sensory neurons. Neurosci. In press
  • Petruska, J.C., Mena, N., Nakatsuka, T., Cooper, B.Y., Johnson, R.D., and Gu, J.G. (2000)P2x1 receptor subunit immunoreactivity and ATP-evoked fast currents in adult rat dorsal root ganglion neurons. Neuroreport.11, 3589-3592
  • Petruska, J.C., Cooper, B.Y.,Johnson, R.D., and Gu, J.G. (2000) Distribution patterns of different P2x receptor phenotypes in acutely dissociated dorsal root ganglion neurons of adult rats. Exp Brain Res134, 126-132.
  • Petruska, J.C., Cooper, B.Y., Gu, J.G., Rau, K.K. and Johnson, R.D (2000) distribution of P2x1, P2x2, and P2x3 receptor subunits in rat DRG: Relation to population markers and specific cell types. J Chem Neuro 20, 141-162
  • Petruska, J.C., Napaporn, J., Johnson, R.D, Gu, J.G., and Cooper, B.Y. (2000) Subclassified acutely dissociated cells of rat DRG I: Histochemistry and patterns of capsaicin, proton and ATP activated currents. J Neurophysiol84, 2365-2379.
  • Gu, J.G. Bardoni R. Magherini PC and MacDermott A.B. (1998) Effects of the P2-purinoceptor antagonists suramin and PPADS on glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the spinal cord dorsal horn neurons. Neurosci. Lett. 253, 167-170.
  • Gu, J.G. and MacDermott, A.B. (1997) ATP P2X receptor activation elicits glutamate release from sensory neuron synapses Nature. 389, 749-753.
  • Badoni, R., Goldstein, P., Lee, J., Gu, J.G., and MacDermott, A.B. (1997) Synaptic transmission via P2x receptors in spinal cord dorsal horn neurons.Journal of Neuroscience 17:5297-5304.
  • Gu, J.G., Albuquerque, C., Lee, J., and MacDermott, A.B.(1996) Synaptic strengthening through activation of Ca2+ -permeable AMPA receptors. Nature. 381, 793-796.
  • Andreas, K., Albuquerque, C., Gu, J.G., and MacDermott, A.B.(1996) Ca2+-dependent desensitization of the NMDA receptor shows fast kinetics and high Ca2+ sensitivity in embryonic and postnatal rat spinal dorsal horn neurons. Journal of Physiology. 495, 449-463
  • Gu, J.G., Nath, A., and Geiger, J.D.(1996) Characterization of low affinity inhibitory-sensitive and -resistant adenosine transporters in cultured human fetal astrocytes . Journal of Neurochemistry. 67, 972-977.
  • Gu, J.G.,Foga, I.O.Parkinson, F.E. andGeiger, J.D.(1995) Involvement of bidirectional adenosine transporters in the release of L-[3H]adenosine from rat brain synaptosomal preparations. Journal of Neurochemistry.64, 2105-10.

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