Sympathetic motor neuron dysfunction is a missing link in age-associated sympathetic overactivity

Overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system is a hallmark of aging. The cellular mechanisms behind this overactivity remain poorly understood, with most attention paid to likely central nervous system components. In this work, we hypothesized that aging also affects the function of motor neurons in the peripheral sympathetic ganglia. To test this hypothesis, we compared the electrophysiological responses and ion-channel activity of neurons isolated from the superior cervical ganglia of young (12 weeks), middle-aged (64 weeks), and old (115 weeks) mice. These approaches showed that aging does impact the intrinsic properties of sympathetic motor neurons, increasing spontaneous and evoked firing responses. A reduction of M current emerged as a major contributor to age-related hyperexcitability. Thus, it is essential to consider the effect of aging on motor components of the sympathetic reflex as a crucial part of the mechanism involved in sympathetic overactivity., The dataset contains images and functional recordings. It was collected using electrophysiology and microscopy. The Materials and Methods section of the related manuscript provides specific details on data acquisition. , , # Sympathetic motor neuron dysfunction is a missing link in age-associated sympathetic overactivity

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z08kprrpp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z08kprrpp)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data from recordings of sympathetic neurons comparing three ages in mice. Data include current-clamp and voltage-clamp recordings. Quantification and analyses presented in the manuscript were performed in Prism. Files uploaded here were copied to Excel. Files are separated for each figure. 

### Files and variables

#### File: Figure\_8\_de\_la\_Cruz.xlsx

**Description:** Data from Figure 8 containing measurements of the resting membrane potential in the presence of retigabine (Sheet 1) and linopirdine (Sheet 2). They contain three columns named Before, After, and Recovery, and the units are mV. Rows are paired measurements for each cell.

#### File: Figure\_4\_de\_la\_Cruz.xlsx

**Description:** Data from Figure 4 containing measurements of electrophysiolog...