Innervation of facial skin but not masticatory muscles or the tongue by trigeminal primary afferents containing somatostatin in the rat.
Using retrograde transport of a fluorescent dye, True blue, the peripheral tissues innervated by trigeminal ganglion neurones containing somatostatin have been investigated. Of ganglion neurones retrogradely labelled from injections of dye into the facial skin, 3.45% were found to be immunoreactive for somatostatin. In contrast, none of the neurones labelled from injections of dye into the tongue or masseter muscle were found to contain this peptide. This demonstration of a restricted distribution of somatostatin-containing primary afferents raises the possibility that somatostatin may be involved in functions which are specific to skin and not to the other tissues examined.
D000818:Animals; D001572:Benzofurans; D005145:Face / Q000294:innervation*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D008410:Masticatory Muscles / Q000294:innervation*; D008845:Microinjections; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation*; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000032:analysis*; D014059:Tongue / Q000294:innervation*; D012668:Trigeminal Ganglion / Q000032:analysis / Q000166:cytology*; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve / Q000166:cytology*
D001572:Benzofurans; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D013004:Somatostatin; C038675:true blue