Distributive characteristics of projection from vestibular nuclei to nucleus raphe magnus in rats

BACKGROUND： Morphological studies have confirmed that vestibular nuclei accepts serotoninergic projections from nucleus raphe magnus, nucleus raphes pallidus, etc. But it is still unclear whether there is bi-directional association between vestibular nuclei and nucleus raphe magnus. OBJECTIVE： To observe the characteristics of projective fibers from vestibular nuclei to nucleus raphe magnus using tetramethyl rhodamine （TMR） in rats, so as to provide more sufficient morphological evidence of neural association from vestibular nuclei. DESIGN： An observational experiment. SETTING： Department of Anatomy （K.K. Leung Brain Research Center）, the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA. MATERIALS： Eighteen male SD rats of clean degree, weighing 250-280 g, were provided by the Experimental Animal Center of the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA. METHODS： The experiments were carried out in the laboratory of Department of Anatomy （K.K. Leung Brain Research Center）, the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA from September 2006 to January 2007. All the rats were anesthetized with intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital sodium, then according to the coordinates on the rat brain atlas, 0.1 μL TMR （100 g/L） was injected into nucleus raphes magnus via the tip of glass microtubule by means of microinjection. Seven days later, the rats were anesthetized, then perfused and fixed to remove brain, and then frozen coronal brain sections were prepared. The retrogradely labeled neurons in the injected and projected sites were observed under fluorescence microscope. Light filters with evoked wave length of 540-553 nm and emission wave length ≥ 1 580 nm were selected to observe the orange TMR-labeled neurons. All the sections were observed and counted under the fluorescence microscope. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Characteristics and number of retrogradely labeled neurons at different sites of nuclei. RESULTS： Totally 18 SD rats were enrolled, 9 of them were excluded due to the deviation of injected site, and the other 9 were involved in the final analysis of results. The concentrated region of TMR injection was mainly restricted to nucleus raphes magnus, and diffused to the surrounding area to different extents. There were obvious differences in the distributions of the labeled neurons among the subdivisions in vestibular nuclei, as well as the distributions of the labeled neurons at different sites in the same subdivision. The majority of the labeled neurons distributed in the rostral levels of medial vestibular nucleus and the lateral vestibular nucleus, while fewer labeled neurons were observed in superior vestibular nucleus. CONCLUSION： ① There might be bi-directional association between vestibular nucli and nucleus raphe magnus, suggesting that nucleus raphe magnus played a role in the transmission and processing of vestibular information. ② The projection from nucleus raphe magnus to vestibular nucleus has certain distributive characteristics in the region.

THE ROLE OF NUCLEUS RAPHE MAGNUS IN THE ANTINOCICEPTIVE EFFECT OF MUSCLE SPINDLE AFFERENTS IN THE RAT

Objective To investigate the role of NRM in the antinociceptive effect of muscle spindle afferents,the influence of NRM lesion on the inhibitory effect of muscle spindle afferents on the nociceptive responses of wide dynamic range (WDR) neurons and the effects of the muscle spindle afferents on the NRM neuronal activities were observed. Methods The single units of WDR neurons in the spinal dorsal horn were recorded extracellularly, and the inhibitory effects of activating muscle spindle afferents by intravenous administration of succinylcholine (SCH) on the C fibers evoked responses (C responses) of WDR neurons were tested before and after lesion of NRM.The effects of the muscle spindle afferents activated by administrating SCH on the single NRM neurons were also examined.Results ①It was found that the C responses of WDR neurons were significantly inhibited by intravenously administration of SCH, and the inhibitory effect was reduced after lesion of NRM;②The activities of most of the NRM neurons could be changed significantly by administrating SCH. According to their responses, NRM neurons could be classified into three types:excitatory, inhibitory and non responsive neurons, and the responses were dose dependent. Conclusion These results suggest that the muscle spindle afferents evoked by SCH may activate the NRM neurons, which plays an important role in the antinociception of muscle spindle afferents.