Evaluation of the Bilateral Cardiac Afferent Distribution at the Spinal and Vagal Ganglia by Retrograde Labeling.

Evaluation of the Bilateral Cardiac Afferent Distribution at the Spinal and Vagal Ganglia by Retrograde Labeling. Brain Res. 2020 Nov 07;:147201 Authors: Akgul Caglar T, Durdu ZB, Turhan MU, Gunal MY, Aydın MS, Ozturk G, Cagavi E Abstract The identity of sensory neurons innervating the heart tissue and the extent of information reported to the brain via these neurons are poorly understood. In order to evaluate the multidimensional distribution and abundance of the cardiac spinal and vagal afferents, we assessed the retrograde labeling efficiency of various tracers, and mapped the cardiac afferents qualitatively and quantitatively at the bilateral nodose ganglia (NGs) and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs). From the five different retrograde tracers evaluated, Di-8-ANEPPQ yielded reproducibly the highest labeling efficiency of cardiac afferents. We demonstrated specific cardiac afferents at NGs and C4 to T11 DRG segments. Next, the 2D reconstruction of the tissue sections and 3D imaging of the whole NG and DRG tissues revealing homogeneous and bilateral distribution of cardiac afferents. The quantitative analyses of the labeled cardiac afferents demonstrated approximately 5-6 % of the soma in NGs that were equally distributed bilaterally. The neuronal character of Di-8-ANEPPQ labelled cells were validated by coimmunostaning with pan-neuronal marker Tuj-1. In addition, the cell diameters of labelled cardiac sensory neurons were found smaller ...
Source: Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Source Type: research