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Number, distribution and neuropeptide content of rat knee joint afferents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1997

PAUL T. SALO  and
ELIZABETH THERIAULT
PAUL T. SALO
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, and The Playfair Neuroscience Unit, The Toronto Hospital, Western Division, Toronto, Canada
ELIZABETH THERIAULT
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, and The Playfair Neuroscience Unit, The Toronto Hospital, Western Division, Toronto, Canada
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Abstract

Retrograde tracing with Fluoro-Gold was used to identify the complete population of knee joint afferents in the lumbar dorsal root ganglia of adult female Wistar rats. There was an average of 581±31 (mean±S.D.) afferents supplying each joint. These were found distributed from L1 to L5 with the great majority localised in the L3 and L4 ganglia. Electron microscopy of the posterior articular nerve of the knee revealed an average of 103±15 (mean±S.D.) myelinated and 513±39 unmyelinated axonal profiles. Since about 50–60% of the unmyelinated profiles would be expected to be sympathetic efferents, these numbers are consistent with the numbers of afferents found by Fluoro-Gold retrograde tracing and suggest that the posterior articular nerve contains about 50% of the total number of knee joint afferents in the rat. Immunohistochemistry revealed that an average of 10% of identified joint afferents expressed substance P-like immunoreactivity and that 33% expressed calcitonin gene-related peptide-like immunoreactivity.

Keywords

Sensory gangliasubstance Pcalcitonin gene-related peptideFluoro-Gold
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Anatomy , Volume 190 , Issue 4 , June 1997 , pp. 515 - 522
Copyright
© Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1997

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