Norepinephrine throughout the spinal cord of the cat: I. Normal quantitative laminar and segmental distribution

✍ Scribed by Dr. V. John Massari; Chan H. Park; Johan P. Suyderhoud; Yousef Tizabi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 601 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-4476
• DOI: 10.1002/syn.890020314

✦ Synopsis

Norepinephrine (NE) concentrations were measured by radioenzymatic assay in microdissected individual laminae of each segment of the cat spinal cord. Norepinephrine was detected in all areas of the spinal gray matter and showed more than a 7fold difference in concentration between the laminae with the highest and lowest NE. The cervical, thoracic, and lumbosacral spinal regions showed significant interlaminar differences in NE. Intersegmental changes in NE were seen within single laminae of the thoracic and lumbosacral spinal cord, but not in the cervical spinal cord. A significant rostra1 to caudal, increasing regional gradient of NE was observed from the cervical to lumbosacral spinal cord in laminae 1-111, V, VI, VII, and IX. In the intermediolateral cell column (IML), epinephrine concentrations were 2 to 5% of NE. Neither neurotransmitter showed a significant intersegmental variation in the IML. These data should prove useful in further defining the precise role of NE in specific regions of the spinal cord that mediate sensory, motor, autonomic, or propriospinal functions.