Olfactory Bulb Experiment

David Shoemaker

Dr. Molesworth

Graduate Seminar

January 29, 2016

Abstract The olfactory bulb is a vital part of the olfaction process sending signals to different areas of the Central Nervous System. The olfactory receptors are located in the nasal cavity and are responsible for binding different odors which causes signals to be sent to the olfactory bulb. When the whole process is completed we have our sense of smell. Located in the olfactory bulb are mitral cells. Mitral cells receive signals in the glomerulus and then project through the olfactory bulb to pyriform cortex (1). In this research paper the goal of the experiment was to determine the effects that different odors have on mitral cell development and size using mice. They used

The Kv1.3 potassium channel is expressed on mitral cells and may provide a super smell phenotype. In the first part of the experiment the researchers looked at the Kv1.3 deleted mice to see if there was any significant changes to the mitral cells in the mice. They found that there was an increase in the number of mitral cells in three different regions of the knockout mice. The regions included were the lateral, medial, and ventral sides. The wild type mice did not show this increase in mitral cells. This increase was only seen in the very early stages of the mice and not by 3 months or one year of age. The results from this showed that the amount of action potentials can influence the survival and proliferation of mitral cells. In a second part of the experiment the mice were exposed to a peppermint odor to determine what changes could be seen in mitral cells. Three month old and one year old mice were exposed to the peppermint smell 5 times a day for 30 days. They compared their results looking at the different regions. In the dorsal and lateral regions they found larger mitral cells than the knockout mice before the experiments. After they had been exposed to the peppermint odor they saw a