Unmyelinated fibers in human spinal ventral roots: C4 to S2.
METHODS
Histological examination of human spinal ventral roots.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the proportion of unmyelinated fibers in human ventral roots from the 4th cervical (C4) to 2nd sacral (S2) segment, and to evaluate differences in the proportions of unmyelinated fibers between the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral segments, and between autonomic and other segments.


METHODS
University Teaching Hospital, Busan, Korea.


METHODS
Eight embalmed adult human cadavers (six males and two females; mean age 56.3 years) were collected. The ventral root samples were obtained by transverse cuts of the ventral roots within 1 cm proximal to the medial portion of the dorsal root ganglion from the C4 to S2 segment. The number of unmyelinated and myelinated fibers was counted in four fields, and the mean number of unmyelinated fibers was calculated. The percentage of unmyelinated fibers was calculated from the ratio of unmyelinated fibers to total fibers (myelinated fibers+unmyelinated fibers).


RESULTS
The mean percentages of unmyelinated axons in cervical (C4-C8), thoracic (T1-T12), lumbar (L1-L5) and sacral (S1-S2) ventral roots were 16.3, 21.4, 17.8 and 20.7%, respectively. The percentage of unmyelinated fibers in thoracic ventral roots was higher than that for other segments (P<0.001). There was no significant difference in proportions of unmyelinated fibers between the sympathetic segments (T11-L2), parasympathetic segments (S2) and the other segments (C4-T10 and L3-S1) (P=0.1784).


CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 20% of human spinal ventral root fibers were unmyelinated. The proportion of unmyelinated fibers was highest in the thoracic segments.
Ko
H-Y
HY
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, Korea. drkohy@gmail.com
Shin
Y B
YB
Sohn
H J
HJ
Chang
J H
JH
Ahn
Y H
YH
Ha
Y H
YH
D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008161:Lumbosacral Region; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated; D013126:Spinal Nerve Roots / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric