Age changes in the centrally and peripherally located sensory neurons in rat

Summary Lipofuscin pigment formation and distribution in the Mes. N.5 neurons, trigeminal and spinal ganglia of male Wistar rats of 2, 14, 32 and 49 months as an indication of aging has been investigated. These intraneuronal pigment granules are found as early as 2 months in all the cells, and continue to accumulate in all the cells in varying amounts until the first year of life. The different rate at which lipofuscin accumulates probably shows the difference in the maturation of the functionally related cells. At later stages the obvious findings are complex pigment body formation and localization of the pigment bodies either at one pole as seen in the Mes. N. 5 neurons or arranged submembranously parallel to the long axis of the cells in the ganglia. The vacuolated lipofuscin pigment bodies are bound by a double limiting membrane and among the vacuoles are found tubular membranous structures resembling residual mitochondrial substructures. These findings suggest a mitochondrial origin of lipofuscin, rather than a lysosomal. The intracellular pigment bodies seen in the perineuronal satellite cells of peripheral ganglia appear to be signs of removal of lipofuscin from the ganglion cells.Acknowledgements. We wish to thank Mr. J. Kirchhoff, Miss E. Heyder, Mr. W. Dresp and Mrs. M. del C. Weinrichter for the technical assistance, Mr. R. Dungan and Mrs. S. Ruelke for the photographic work. We are grateful to the DAAD and the Universitätsbund of the University of Göttingen for the financial assistance. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant No. G1 28, 16/17.DAAD fellow on leave from the Department of Anatomy, A.I.I.M.S., New Delhi 16, India.