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Development and age‐related change of cerebrovascular noradrenergic (NA) innervation in the Japanese quail
Author(s) -
HAYASHI Kiyonori,
FURUSE Mitsuhiro,
SOH Tomoki,
KUSABA Haruo,
IWAMOTO Hisao,
ANDŌ Kōichi
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
animal science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.606
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1740-0929
pISSN - 1344-3941
DOI - 10.1046/j.1344-3941.2002.00072.x
Subject(s) - anatomy , quail , cerebral arteries , cerebral circulation , biology , medicine , endocrinology
Development of cerebrovascular noradrenergic (NA) innervation was investigated in the Japanese quail, using histofluorescence technique and quantitative analysis. Cerebral perivascular NA nerves arose from the cerebral carotid (CCA), internal ethmoidal (IEA) and vertebral (VA) arteries before hatching, with the first appearance on the CCA and IEA at embryonic day (E) 8 and of the VA at E14. Nerves arising from the IEA were greater in number and spread more rapidly than those from the CCA and VA. On E16, fluorescent fiber bundles lying on the anterior circulation subdivided rapidly into thin fibers. Consequently, the number of NA nerves over the arterial system increased greatly at hatching, particularly along the distal portion of the anterior ramus. At the same developmental stage, all the major arteries of the anterior and posterior circulation were almost entirely covered by NA nerves. The abrupt reorganization of cerebrovascular NA innervation in newborn quails may be related to some specific trophic and vasomotor roles for structural and functional improvement of the cerebral circulation that is required for its brain differentiation at this critical period of development. The supply of NA nerves to the anterior and posterior circulations sequentially increased during development from posthatching day (P) 1–15. Plexuses of NA nerves in each of the major cerebral arteries at P22 and P42–50 were similar in meshwork construction to each other, and to those seen at P15. Likewise, there was no clear statistical difference in the nerve density of the corresponding arteries among the three posthatching ages, except for the caudal basilar artery.