Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on November 2, 2008
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn169
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
19/6/1263    most recent
bhn169v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Huo, F.-Q.
Right arrow Articles by Tang, J.-S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Huo, F.-Q.
Right arrow Articles by Tang, J.-S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Synaptic Connections between GABAergic Elements and Serotonergic Terminals or Projecting Neurons in the Ventrolateral Orbital Cortex

Fu-Quan Huo1, Tao Chen2, Bo-Chang Lv2, Jing Wang1, Ting Zhang2, Chao-Ling Qu1, Yun-Qing Li2 and Jing-Shi Tang1

1 Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases, Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Xi'an 710061, PR China, 2 Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology and K.K. Leung Brain Research Centre, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, PR China

Address correspondence to Drs Yun-Qing Li, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology and K.K. Leung Brain Research Centre, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China. Email: deptanat{at}fmmu.edu.cn and Jing-Shi Tang, Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Xi'an 710061, China. Email: jstang{at}mail.xjtu.edu.cn.

The ventrolateral orbital cortex (VLO) is part of an endogenous analgesic system, consisting of the spinal cord–thalamic nucleus submedius–VLO periaqueductal gray (PAG)–spinal cord loop. The present study examined morphological connections of GABAergic ({gamma}-aminobutyric acidergic) neurons and serotonergic projection terminals from the dorsal raphe nucleus (DR), as well as the relationship between GABAergic terminals and VLO neurons projecting to the PAG, by using anterograde and retrograde tracing combined with immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy methods. Results indicate that the majority (93%) of GABAergic neurons in the VLO also express the 5-HT1A (5-hydroxytryptamine 1A) receptor, and serotonergic terminals originating from the DR nucleus made symmetrical synapses with GABAergic neuronal cell bodies and dendrites within the VLO. GABAergic terminals also made symmetrical synapses with neurons expressing GABAA receptors and projecting to the PAG. These results suggest that a local neuronal circuit, consisting of 5-HTergic terminals, GABAergic interneurons, and projection neurons, exists in the VLO, and provides morphological evidence for the hypothesis that GABAergic modulation is involved in 5-HT1A receptor activation-evoked antinociception.

Key Words: 5-HT1A receptor • electron microscopy • GABAergic neuron • immunofluorescence • ventrolateral orbital cortex

Fu-Quan Huo and Tao Chen contributed equally to this work.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.