title: Peripheral projections of rat primary sensory neurons immunoreactive for neurotrophin 3.
abstract: Sensory neurons can be classified into subpopulations based on a variety of characteristics, including their morphology and physiological modalities. Whether any of these classifications correlates with neurotrophic sensitivities has not been determined. We have recently reported that a subpopulation of large diameter sensory neurons of the rat contain neurotrophin 3-like immunoreactivity (NT3-ir). In this study, we have further characterised NT3-ir sensory neurons by their size, segmental localization, and peripheral projections by combined techniques of retrograde tracing and immunohistochemistry. The size distribution showed that NT3-ir was localised to a subpopulation of large-diameter neurons ranging from 560 to 3,120 microns2. Greater numbers of NT3-ir neurons reside in trigeminal (43% of total), cervical (36%), and lumbar (39%) than in thoracic spinal ganglia (13-17%). In combination with Fluoro-Gold retrograde tracing, it was found that about 30% of sensory neurons projecting to the tibial muscle were NT3-ir, compared with 39% for tendon, 50% for whisker hair follicles, 17% for subdermis or epidermis, and only 1% for kidney or adrenal gland. These studies indicate that NT3-ir sensory neurons mainly project to skin and muscles but not viscera. Thus, the characterization of NT3-ir spinal sensory neurons suggests that large sensory neurons subserving proprioception and mechanoception require NT3 for the maintenance of normal function.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neuroscience, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. pzxfz@cc.flinders.edu.au
authors.forename: X F
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Rush
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D005724:Ganglia / Q000276:immunology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000276:immunology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000276:immunology*; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000276:immunology*; D020933:Neurotrophin 3; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D020933:Neurotrophin 3