Separate development of nitric oxide synthase- and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-immunoreactive nerves arising from the vertebral artery in the rat.
Development of nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-immunoreactive (-IR) nerves supplying the basilar and vertebral arteries (BA and VA) was investigated in White Wistar rats, using double immunohistochemistry. NOS-IR and VIP-IR nerves via the anterior circulation (AC), which mostly expressed NO(+)/VIP(+), extended to the BA during the second postnatal week, and usually reached as far as the rostral two third of the BA on PND 20. NOS-IR nerves were completely lack in the cBA and the VA on PND10, and often absent from these arterial regions even at PND 20. Nevertheless, a small number of VIP(+)/NOS(-) nerves were localized in the walls from the caudal BA (cBA) to the VA on PND 5. On PND 20, they frequently met with the descending NOS-IR and VIP-IR nerves via the AC around the lower portion of the middle BA. Fiber bundles containing NOS(+)/VIP(+) axons were first visualized on the caudal VA at PND 30 and observed frequently at PND 80, with a distinct increase in number of NOS-IR and VIP-IR nerves supplying the cBA and the VA. Thus, NOS-IR nerves coming from the VA develop through its own characteristic sequence that lags markedly behind the time of appearance for VIP-IR nerves from the same vascular route and for NOS-IR and VIP-IR nerves via the AC.
Ando
Koichi
K
Biological Laboratory, Department of Applied Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu Sangyo University, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 813-8530, Japan.
Yoshida
Souta
S
Yamauchi
Hitoshi
H
Kubo
Shinji
S
Kusaba
Haruo
H
D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000201:enzymology; D001488:Basilar Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000294:innervation*; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D009417:Nerve Tissue / Q000201:enzymology; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014660:Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide / Q000502:physiology*; D014711:Vertebral Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000294:innervation*
D014660:Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I