Abstract

Although the existence of nerve cells which determine the activity of sympathetic nervous system in ventrolateral medulla is advocated recently, there are wide varieties on the location and function of them according to authors. Present study aimed to identify and characterize the medullospinal tract cells in rostral and caudal medulla of cats .which branch to the lateral horn of the upper thoracic spinal cord. Cats were anesthetized with ${\alpha}-chloralose$. The upper thoracic spinal cord and floor of the IVth ventricle were exposed. Medullospinal tract cells in rostral and caudal medulla were identified by anti-dromic stimulation of the intermediolateral nucleus in the upper thoracic cord and then the location and physiological characteristics of these cells were studied. A total of seventy cells in medulla had constant latency and responded to high frequency stimulation to thoracic cord. Among them fifty-six cells were identified as medullospinal tract cells either by collision with spontaneous activities or activities evoked by sciatic nerve stimulation(27/56), or by determining the refractory period (29/56). Thirty-one of these cells branched to the contralateral thoracic spinal cord, twenty-one cells to the ipsilateral side and remaining four cells branched to both sides. The conduction velocity of cells branching to the contralateral side was $29{\pm}2.9\;m/sec$ and that of cells to the ipsilateral side was $39.1{\pm}6.0\;m/sec$. When medulla was devided into two by a horizontal plane at 3 mm rostral to the obex, fifty-one among seventy cells were in the rostral medulla and nineteen were in the caudal medulla. The conduction velocities of these two groups were $21.6{\pm}1.0\;and\;33.3{\pm}3.9\;m/sec$, respectively. In this study, we confirmed the existence of two groups of medullospinal tract cells in rostral and caudal ventrolateral medulla, which branch to the lateral horn of thoracic cord and these cells have relatively few spontaneous activities and rapid conduction velocity, so we concluded that these cells are different from the previously known sympatho-related cells in ventrolateral medulla.

주제어

#Medullospinal tract cell   #Rostral and caudal ventrolateral medulla   #Thoracic spinal cord   #Antidromic stimulation  

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