Abstract
In order to clarify the developmental pattern in the sympathetic nerve fibers innervating the cerebral arterial system during the postnatal period in rats, we labeled the postganglionic nerve fibers originating in the superior cervical ganglion (SCG) and directly observed their extension and plexus formation by means of anterograde labeling with wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). The WGA-HRP solution was injected into the right SCG 1–7 days after birth. The rats were killed 48 h after trace injection, and the cerebral arteries were reacted with tetramethylbenzidine, then observed as a whole mount preparation. The labeled nerve fibers appeared as a few relatively straight bundles with branching fibers running longitudinally to the long axis of the artery in the ipsilateral right side of the circle of Willis and proximal portion of their main branching arteries at 3 days after birth. The nerve fibers started to form a circular pattern of nerve plexus only on the wall of the circle of Willis as early as 1 week after birth. At the beginning of postnatal week 2, labeled nerve fibers extended the collateral projections into the collateral side of the circle of Willis, and these expanding projections could not be observed at postnatal week 3. We observed a route of the sympathetic nerve fibers advancing into the cerebral arterial system which has not been described in previous studies; bundle of labeled nerve fibers entered into the wall of the middle portion of the basilar artery in half of the animals, in any postnatal period. We were able to confirm, by using an anterograde labeling technique with WGA-HRP, how the sympathetic nerve fibers advance into the cerebral arterial system, when they start to form nerve plexus during the postnatal period in rats, and clarified that the sympathetic nerve fibers showed overabundant collateral projection in the cerebral arterial system during the early postnatal period.
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Handa, Y., Nojyo, Y., Tamamaki, N. et al. Development of the sympathetic innervation to the cerebral arterial system in neonatal rats as revealed by anterograde labeling with wheatgerm agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase. Exp Brain Res 94, 216–224 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00230289
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00230289