Summary
The adrenergic innervation of the extrarenal blood vessels of the rat left kidney was investigated by fluorescence histochemistry and by electron microscopy. The trunk of the renal artery proximal to the aorta is elastic and appears to be very sparsely innervated. In contrast, near the kidney the renal artery—which divides into 3 to 4 large branches of the muscular type possesses a dense adrenergic innervation. The adrenergic terminal axons are situated in the adventitia close to the external elastic lamella, but only rarely in close contact with smooth muscle cells. In most instances several terminal axons are grouped and enclosed by a Schwann cell, single axons being rare. All terminal axons are able to take up and to store 5-hydroxydopamine which strongly suggests that they are adrenergic. The innervation of the renal vein is more sparse than that of the muscular arteries but somewhat denser than that of the elastic artery. In addition, close to the origin of the renal artery the presence of “small intensively fluorescent” (SIF) cells as well as of some adrenergic ganglion cells is noted. The latter are situated in the adrenergic nonterminal axon bundles, which run parallel to the blood vessels.
It is concluded that the uneven adrenergic innervation along the artery as well as individual variations in the branching of the artery are the main causes of the unusually high individual variations of the NA content of this organ such as used in pharmacological experiments.
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Lorez, H.P., Kuhn, H. & Tranzer, J.P. The adrenergic innervation of the renal artery and vein of the rat. Z.Zellforsch 138, 261–272 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00306611
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00306611