Pulmonary intraepithelial vagal nodose afferent nerve terminals are confined to neuroepithelial bodies: an anterograde tracing and confocal microscopy study in adult rats |
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Authors: | D Adriaensen J-P Timmermans I Brouns H-R Berthoud W L Neuhuber and D W Scheuermann |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Cell Biology and Histology, University of Antwerp (RUCA), Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium Tel.: +32 3 2180300; Fax: +32 3 2180301; e-mail: dadria@ruca.ua.ac.be, BE;(2) Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA, US;(3) Anatomy Institute, University of Erlangen, Krankenhausstrasse 9, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany, DE |
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Abstract: | Our present understanding of the morphology of neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs) in mammalian lungs is comprehensive. Several
hypotheses have been put forward regarding their function but none has been proven conclusively. Microscopic data on the innervation
that appears to affect the reaction of NEBs to stimuli have given rise to conflicting interpretations. The aim of this study
has been to check the validity of the hypothesis that pulmonary NEBs receive an extensive vagal sensory innervation. The fluorescent
neuronal tracer DiI was injected into the vagal sensory nodose ganglion and NEBs were visualized in toto by using immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy on 100-μm-thick frozen sections of the lungs of adult rats. The most
striking finding was the extensive intraepithelial terminal arborizations of DiI-labelled vagal afferents in intrapulmonary
airways, apparently always co-appearing with calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-immunoreactive NEBs. Not all NEBs received
a traced nerve fibre. Intrapulmonary CGRP-containing nerve fibres, including those innervating NEBs, always appeared to belong
to a nerve fibre population different from the DiI-traced fibres and hence did not arise from the nodose ganglion. Therefore,
at least some of the pulmonary NEBs in adult rats are supplied with sensory nerve fibres that originate from the vagal nodose
ganglion and form beaded ramifications between the NEB cells, thus providing support for the hypothesis of a receptor function
for NEBs.
Received: 13 November 1997 / Accepted: 17 February 1998 |
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Keywords: | Lung Neuroendocrine system Neuroepithelial bodies Innervation Neuronal tracing DiI Calcitonin gene-related peptide Rat (Wistar) |
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