title: Differential densities of cholinergic nerves in canine supraventricular regions of hearts.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cholinergic nerve plays an important role in the induction and maintenance of atrial fibrillation (AF). Cholinergic innervation at supraventricular tissues is considered to be the histological basis and intervention-associated target site for the arrhythmia; however, the distribution of cholinergic nerve in supraventricular tissues has not been clearly studied. In this study, we investigated the cholinergic nerve innervation in canine supraventricular regions of hearts.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed histological and immunohistochemical staining on canine tissues of left atrial appendage (LAA), right atrial appendage (RAA), left atrium (LA), right atrium (RA), atrial septum (AS), crista terminalis (CT), pulmonary vein (PV), and super vena cava (SVC) using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and antibodies to choline acetyltransferase.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Normal canine cardiovascular histological structures were shown from H&E staining. Cholinergic nerve densities at LAA and RAA were significantly higher than LA, which was higher than RA, but no significant difference was observed between LAA and RAA. Furthermore, RA was significantly higher than AS, CT, PV, and SVC and there were no significant differences among the latter four.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The heterogeneity of different densities of cholinergic nerve innervation of canine supraventricular regions establishes the histological basis of cholinergic nerve-mediated pathological conditions.
authors: Department of Cardiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China.
authors: Zhe
authors: Z
authors: Li
authors: Qing-Yan
authors: QY
authors: Zhao
authors: He
authors: H
authors: Huang
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Yang
authors: Hong
authors: H
authors: Jiang
authors: Cong-Xin
authors: CX
authors: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000473:pathology; D059329:Cholinergic Neurons / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D004285:Dogs; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male