RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Medullary Targets of Neurally Conveyed Sensory Information from the Rat Hepatic Portal and Superior Mesenteric Veins
JF eneuro
JO eNeuro
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP ENEURO.0419-20.2021
DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0419-20.2021
VO 8
IS 1
A1 Cinthia Garcia-Luna
A1 Graciela Sanchez-Watts
A1 Myrtha Arnold
A1 Guillaume de Lartigue
A1 Nick DeWalt
A1 Wolfgang Langhans
A1 Alan G. Watts
YR 2021
UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/8/1/ENEURO.0419-20.2021.abstract
AB Vagal and spinal sensory endings in the wall of the hepatic portal and superior mesenteric veins (PMV) provide the brain with chemosensory information important for energy balance and other functions. To determine their medullary neuronal targets, we injected the transsynaptic anterograde viral tracer HSV-1 H129-772 (H129) into the PMV wall or left nodose ganglion (LNG) of male rats, followed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and high-resolution imaging. We also determined the chemical phenotype of H129-infected neurons, and potential vagal and spinal axon terminal appositions in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMX) and the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). PMV wall injections generated H129-infected neurons in both nodose ganglia and in thoracic dorsal root ganglia (DRGs). In the medulla, cholinergic preganglionic parasympathetic neurons in the DMX were virtually the only targets of chemosensory information from the PMV wall. H129-infected terminal appositions were identified on H129-infected somata and dendrites in the DMX, and on H129-infected DMX dendrites that extend into the NTS. Sensory transmission via vagal and possibly spinal routes from the PMV wall therefore reaches DMX neurons via axo-somatic appositions in the DMX and axo-dendritic appositions in the NTS. However, the dearth of H129-infected NTS neurons indicates that sensory information from the PMV wall terminates on DMX neurons without engaging NTS neurons. These previously underappreciated direct sensory routes into the DMX enable a vago-vagal and possibly spino-vagal reflexes that can directly influence visceral function.