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Monosynaptic transmission of respiratory drive to phrenic motoneurons from brainstem bulbospinal neurons in rats
Author(s) -
Ellenberger Howard H.,
Feldman Jack L.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/cne.902690104
Subject(s) - biology , brainstem , medulla oblongata , medulla , spinal cord , anatomy , phrenic nerve , neuroscience , respiratory system , dendrite (mathematics) , motor neuron , central nervous system , geometry , mathematics
The termination patterns in the rat phrenic nucleus of neurons within two respiratory cell groups of the ventrolateral medulla (Bötzinger Complex and the rostral ventral respiratory group) were determined. The plant lectin, Phaseolus vulgaris leuco‐agglutinin, was used as an anterograde tracer to label presynaptic processes of bulbospinal neurons, and horseradish peroxidase was used simultaneously to label phrenic motoneurons. Labeled bulbospinal axons ended with dense terminal arborizations within the phrenic cell column and on radial phrenic motoneuron dendrite bundles, which represented the exclusive site of termination of Bötzinger Complex and rostral ventral respiratory group neurons in the lower cervical spinal cord. Terminals of these descending axons formed presumptive synaptic contacts within longitudinal and radial dendrite bundles, and on the cell somata of phrenic motoneurons.