title: Evidence that dopamine-beta-hydroxylase immunoreactive neurons in the lateral reticular nucleus project to the spinal cord in the rat.
abstract: The existence of noradrenergic projections from the lateral reticular nucleus (LRt) to the dorsal quadrant of cervical, thoracic, or lumbar spinal cord was investigated using a combined method of WGA-apo-HRP-gold retrograde tracing and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) immunocytochemistry. Preliminary retrograde tracing studies indicated that LRt neurons projecting to cervical, thoracic, or lumbar spinal cord were characteristically located near the perimeter of the LRt. Double-labeling experiments demonstrated that a portion of these peripherally-located, spinal-projecting neurons were DBH-immunoreactive. Double-labeled neurons were also located at the parvocellular division of the contralateral LRt in the thoracic injection cases. Double-labeled neurons were not observed at the subtrigeminal division in cervical, thoracic, or lumbar injection case. The results suggest the possibility that the noradrenergic LRt-spinal pathway might be involved in a variety of pain processing and cardiovascular regulatory functions in the rat.
authors.affiliation: Division of Premedical Courses, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Chungju, Chungbuk 380=701, South Korea. Hyunsook.Lee@kku.edu
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Waterhouse
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Mihailoff
mesh_terms: D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D004299:Dopamine beta-Hydroxylase / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012154:Reticular Formation / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D004299:Dopamine beta-Hydroxylase; D009638:Norepinephrine