Fine structure and innervation of the avian adrenal gland

Summary According to their ultrastructure and histochemistry three types of efferent nerve fibers can be distinguished in the bird's adrenal gland. The main part is made up of cholinergic fibers recognizable by a positive reaction for acetylcholinesterase and two specific populations of granules within the synaptic ending. Synaptic vesicles measuring 300 to 500 Å in diameter and dense-cored vesicles with a diameter of about 1 000 Å are discernible.In the periphery of the gland cholinergic axons for the innervation of adrenal cells form large bundles surrounded by a perineural sheath. The bundles cross the capsule and are situated within the adrenal chromaffin cords or at their periphery. Finally small groups of fibers enter a group of chromaffin cells which are surrounded by a basal lamina and which consist of about a dozen or more cells producing adrenaline and noradrenaline. Synaptic endings occur, above all in passeriform species, in the center of a chromaffin cell complex. They are either attached to the innervated cells or their dendrite-like processes, or embedded into the cells, or connected to short spines of the innervated cells. Synaptic and dense-cored vesicles leave the bouton by exocytosis. One synaptic terminal may innervate up to three A- or NA-cells. The existence of different types of synapses for A- and NA-cells cannot be excluded.Supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Un 34/1).