There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) injections of various sympathetic ganglia and the adrenal
gland were made in rats. These produced immunohistochemically detectable retrograde
viral infections of ipsilateral sympathetic preganglionic neurons (SPNs) and transneuronal
infections of the specific sets of second order neurons in the spinal cord and brain
that innervate the infected SPNs. Five cell groups in the brain appear to regulate
the entire sympathetic outflow: the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVH), A5
noradrenergic cell group, caudal raphe region, rostral ventrolateral medulla, and
ventromedial medulla. In addition, local interneurons in laminae VII and X of the
spinal cord are also involved. Other CNS areas also became transneuronally labeled
after infections of certain sympathetic ganglia, most notably the superior cervical
and stellate ganglia. These areas include the central gray matter and lateral hypothalamic
area. The zona incerta was uniquely labeled after stellate ganglion infections. The
cell body labeling was specific. This specificity was demonstrated in the PVH where
the neurons of the parvocellular PVH that form the descending sympathetic pathway
were labeled in a topographic fashion. Finally, we demonstrate that the retrograde
transneuronal viral cell body labeling method can be used simultaneously with either
neuropeptide transmitter or transmitter synthetic enzyme immunohistochemistry.