Chinese Journal of Neuroanatomy 2000;16(3):251-256

THE PROJECTIONS FROM LAMINA Ⅱ OF MEDULLARY DORSAL HORN TO PARABRACHIAL REGION, CAUDAL VENTROLATERAL MEDULLA AND SPINAL CORD IN THE RAT

Jianhong WU ; Yunqing LI ; Jiwu SHI

Keywords

fluorogold; calbindin-D28k; parvalbumin; medullary dorsal horn; lamina Ⅱ; parabrachial region; caudal ventrolateral medulla; cervical cord; rat

Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

After injecting retrograde tracer fiuoro-gold (FG) into the parabrachial region(PB), caudal ventrolateral medulla(CVLM) and the fourth segment of cervical spinal cord (C4), respectively, neurons in laminae I ~ Ⅱ of the medullary dorsalhorn projecting to the above mentioned brain areas were observed. PB received projections from bilateral laminae I and Ⅱ withan ipsilateral dominance; CVLM and C4 received projections from ipsilateral laminae I and Ⅱ. Neurons projecting to C4 werevery sparsely distributed in laminae I and Ⅱ of the medullary dorsal horn. The projecting neurons in outer part of lamina Ⅱwere more than those in inner part of lamina Ⅱ . Combined with immunofluorescence histochemistry for calbindin-D28k(CB) andparvalbumin(PV), it was demonstrated that a part of neurons projecting to PB or CVLM showed CB-like immunoreactivity, butnone of them exhibited PV-like immunoreactivity. There were only a few neurons in lamina Ⅱ projecting to C4 and they exhibitedneither CB- nor PV-like immunoreactivity. The present study provides further evidence for the existence of projecting neurons inlamina Ⅱ and suggests that immunostaining against CB and PV may distinguish two neuronal subpopulations in lamina Ⅱ .