大鼠“肾俞”穴区与肾上腺神经支配的相关性研究

Neuronal Correlation Between Acupoint Shenshu(BL 23) and the Adrenal Gland in Rats

目的:探索"肾俞"穴与肾上腺相关感觉、交感和运动神经元的分布特征,揭示"肾俞"穴与肾上腺之间的神经解剖学联系。方法:以6只正常SD大鼠作为实验对象,将Alexa荧光素488结合霍乱毒素亚单位B(AF 488-CTB)注射在大鼠第2腰椎(L)左侧相当于人体肾俞穴的位置,将Alexa荧光素594结合霍乱毒素亚单位B(AF 594-CTB)注入肾上腺实质。3d后灌流固定,用荧光显微镜和激光共聚焦显微镜对脊神经节、交感神经链和脊髓标记到的神经元进行观察。结果:被AF 488-CTB和AF 594-CTB标记的神经元均出现在相应神经组织的左侧,与大鼠"肾俞"穴区和肾上腺相关的感觉神经元主要分布于胸(T)10至L 2节段脊神经节,并分别集中在T 12—T 13和T 11—T 12脊神经节中,T 12—L 1脊神经节中分布有少量的AF 488/594-CTB双标记神经元。在腰部交感神经链仅观察到由AF 488-CTB和AF 594-CTB各自标记的交感节后神经元,而在T 11—T 13节段脊髓侧角中只有AF 594-CTB标记的交感节前神经元。在颈(C)7—C 8以及T 11—L 1节段脊髓前角观察到AF 488-CTB标记的运动神经元。结论:大鼠"肾俞"穴区和肾上腺在感觉和交感神经支配方面存在节段性联系,这种联系可能是针刺"肾俞"穴调节肾上腺功能的神经解剖学途径。

Objective To explore the neuroanatomical basis of acupoint-visceral correlation by studying the distribution of the neurons associated with acupoint＂Shenshu＂（BL 23）area and adrenal gland in rats.Methods AF 488-CTB and AF 594-CTB were injected into the left side of BL 23 area and adrenal gland in the same rat respectively.Three days after injection,the dorsal root ganglions（DRG）,sympathetic chain,and spinal cord were dissected out from the perfused rats.The neuronal labeling with AF 488/594-CTB was directly observed on the sections under a fluorescent microscope or a laser scanning confocal microscope.Results All neural labeling was observed in the injection side.The sensory neurons associated with both acupoint BL 23 and adrenal gland distributed from thoracic（T）10 to lumbar（L）2 DRG with high concentration in T 12-T 13 and T 11-T 12,respectively,in which some of them were simultaneously labeled with both AF 488/594-CTB and located in T 12-L 1 DRG.For the sympathetic innervation,the postganglionic neurons correlated with BL 23 and adrenal gland were labeled with AF 488/594-CTB separately in the sympathetic chain at the lumbar segments,while the labeled preganglionic neurons were only observed at the lateral horn of T 11-T 13 spinal segments in the cases of adrenal gland.In addition,the labeled motor neurons were mainly detected in the spinal ventral horn at cervical（C）7-C 8 and T 11-L 1 segments.Conclusion These results indicate that there are segmental correlation between BL 23 and adrenal gland on the sensory and sympathetic innervations,and this correlation might be a neural pathway for modulating the function role of adrenal gland through BL 23 needling.