GABA‐ and glycine‐like immunoreactivity in axons and dendrites contacting the central terminals of rapidly adapting glabrous skin afferents in rat spinal cord

The object of the present study was to determine the nature and distribution of synaptic contacts on the terminals of rapidly adapting mechanosensory afferents innervating the glabrous skin of the rat foot. Afferents were physiologically characterized by intracellular recording, before injection with neurobiotin and preparation for electron microscopy. Axon terminals were serially sectioned and immunolabeled with antibodies against GABA and glycine using a postembedding immunogold method. Afferent boutons in lamina III were often surrounded by several presynaptic axons and postsynaptic dendrites (thus forming type II glomeruli), while boutons in laminae IV–V had only simple, nonglomerular interactions. In both regions triadic synaptic arrangements where presynaptic interneurons contact both afferent boutons and their postsynaptic dendrites were present in 50–75% of boutons. Approximately three‐quarters of presynaptic axons were immunoreactive for both GABA and glycine and most of the remainder for GABA alone. Most postsynaptic dendrites were not immunoreactive. Comparisons are made with information from similar studies of other rat and cat afferents conducting in the Aαβ range. This demonstrates that although the principles of control may be similar for cutaneous afferents of this type there are significant differences between cutaneous and 1a muscle afferents in the rat. There are also differences in detail between the interactions of afferents of the same modality in rat and cat; in the rat there are greater numbers of presynaptic axons per bouton and a greater proportion of boutons receive axo‐axonic contacts and are involved in synaptic triads. J. Comp. Neurol. 464:497–510, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.