Abstract
Small numbers of postganglionic cells persist in sympathetic ganglia after the treatment of newborn animals with the nerve growth factor antiserum. In the present study the possibiity was explored whether the cells which survive the immunosympathectomy may be predominantly those which have been designated, in the cat, as cholinergic sympathetic cells. The acetylcholinesterase activity of sympathetic ganglia (superior cervical, stellate, thoracic chain, superior mesenteric, celiac and cardiac) from immunosympathectomized and control rats was visualized by the histochemical method of Koelle. As in the cat, the sympathetic ganglia of rats contain postganglionic cell bodies with either marked, moderate or slight acetylcholinestrase activity. Contrary to cat sympathetic ganglia, the cells with marked and moderate acetylcholinesterase activity predominate in the sympathetic ganglia of control rats. In the various sympathetic ganglia studied in this investigation, cells with slight acetylcholinesterase activity made up only 3.8 to 10.3% of the total cell populations. Considerable variation in the proportion of the three cell types may occur among control ganglia of the same kind. In the present study less than 15% of the total cell populations survived the nerve growth factor antiserum treatment in the superior cervical, stellate, thoracic chain, celiac and cardiac (abdominal) ganglia. No predominant survival of cells with marked acetylcholinesterase activity took place after immunosympathectomy. Nerve growth factor antiserum treatment destroyed cells with marked, moderate and slight acetylcholinesterase activity, and a small number of cells of each type persisted. These experimental observations do not support our previous postulate that the small percentage of cells surviving antiserum treatment are those with marked acetylcholinesterase activity, which may be considered the cholinergic sympathetic cells.
Footnotes
- Received June 23, 1969.
- Accepted November 21, 1969.
- © 1970, by The Williams & Wilkins Company
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