Neonatal transection alters the percentage of substance-P-positive trigeminal ganglion cells that contribute axons to the regenerate infraorbital nerve

Neonatal transection results in a marked reduction of the number of trigeminal (V) ganglion cells that contribute axons to the regenerate infraorbital nerve (ION; Jacquin and Rhoades, 1985; Chiaia et al., 1987). Such lesions also produce a profound deafferentation of the V brain stem complex that appears to spare the innervation of layers I and II of subnucleus caudalis (SpC) by substance-P-positive (SP-positive) primary afferents (Jacquin and Rhoades, 1985; Rhoades et al., 1988). In the present study, we combined retrograde tracing with immunocytochemistry to determine whether neonatal transection of the ION alters the percentage of SP-positive V ganglion cells that contribute axons to this V branch upon regeneration. In V ganglia ipsilateral to the intact ION (n = 8), 11.6% +/- 3.2% of the cells labeled after application of true blue (TB) to the ION were also SP-positive. In ganglia ipsilateral to the neonatally damaged nerve (n = 8), 18.6% +/- 4.7% of the cells labeled after application of TB to the regenerate ION were also SP-positive (p less than 0.001). We also compared the SP content of intact ganglia (n = 10) with that of ganglia ipsilateral to the damaged nerve (n = 10) by means of radioimmunoassay. The normal V ganglia contained (mean +/- SD) 3496 +/- 774 pg SP/mg protein. The value for the ganglia ipsilateral to the damaged nerve was 5533 +/- 1746 pg SP/mg protein (p less than 0.01). There was no significant difference between SP levels on the control and partially deafferented sides of the brain stem in neonatally nerve-damaged adult rats. In one additional experiment, we injected TB into both vibrissa pads of seven rats on the day of birth prior to transection of the ION. After an 8-hr delay, the nerve on one side was then cut and allowed to regenerate, and both V ganglia were then processed for immunocytochemistry. On the nerve-damage side, 25.8% of the TB-labeled cells were SP-positive. The value for the intact side was 12.0% (p less than 0.000001). This result demonstrated that the lesion-induced change in the percentage of SP-positive ION cells was not the result of either late-growing axons from SP-positive ganglion cells that may have been missed by our nerve cuts or collateral sprouting into the regenerate ION by undamaged SP-positive ganglion cells.