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Abstract
To investigate the distribution of Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the central
nervous system of urethane anesthesized rats after activation of a somatosympathetic
reflex pathway, the cut central end of the right femoral nerve of 17 male Wistar rats
was stimulated electrically for 1 h at parameters such that increases in heart rate
and arterial pressure were elicited. Sections of brain and spinal cord were incubated
in anti-Fos antibody and the presence of FLI was detected using the ABC immunoperoxidase
method. In the spinal cord FLI was present in the ipsilateral lumbar spinal cord (laminae
1 and 2, 4-6 and 10) and contralateral intermediolateral nucleus in the thoracic spinal
cord. In the hindbrain, FLI was present in the contralateral rostral ventrolateral
medulla and bilaterally in the cochlear nucleus, external cuneate nucleus, locus coeruleus
and lateral parabrachial nucleus. In the midbrain, label appeared in the Edinger-Westphal
nucleus and peripeduncular nucleus on both sides. In the forebrain, FLI appeared bilaterally
in the central nucleus of the amygdala, para- and periventricular hypothalamus, supraoptic
nucleus, paraventricular thalamus, reuniens nucleus, subfornical organ and bed nucleus
of the stria terminalis. These results define the central nervous system pathways
of somatosympathetic reflexes and demonstrate that areas in the forebrain not previously
known to be activated by somatosympathetic reflexes, but previously implicated in
mediating the defense reaction, are activated by these reflexes.