Localization of sensory neurons traversing the stellate ganglion of the cat

✍ Scribed by B. J. Oldfield; Elspeth M. McLachlan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 570 KB
• Volume: 182
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9967
• DOI: 10.1002/cne.901820509

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The distribution of sensory cells whose axons traverse the stellate ganglion and project via sympathetic cardiac nerves to the heart of the cat has been examined quantitatively. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) injected at multiple sites in the right stellate ganglion, or applied to the middle cardiac nerve, labelled small numbers of cells in the thoracic dorsal root ganglia (DRG) from T~1~ to T~8~. These cells were most numerous between T~2~ and T~5~ and were consistently small (< 40 μm) relative to other cells in the DRG. When HRP was applied to middle cardiac nerves, the numbers of labelled sensory cells always exceeded the numbers of myelinated axons counted in the same nerves from other cats. It is concluded that the distribution of the cells of cardiac sensory fibres is more extensive within thoracic DRG than has been previously reported, and it is suggested that such fibres travelling in the sympathetic cardiac nerves may be either myelinated or unmyelinated.