Difference in projections to the lateral and medial facial nucleus: anatomically separate pathways for rhythmical vibrissa movement in rats

Summary The present paper demonstrates that the lateral and medial subdivisions of the rat facial motor nucleus (NVII) receive differing mesencephalic and metencephalic projections. In order to study brain projections to facial nucleus, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was injected iontophoretically into the entire facial nucleus or the following subdivisions: lateral, dorsolateral, medial, intermediate, and ventral. In the mesencephalic region, the retrorubral nucleus was found to project to the contralateral medial subdivision of NVII, while the red nucleus was found to project to the contralateral lateral subdivision of NVII. Other mesencephalic projections to the facial nucleus arose from the deep mesencephalic nucleus, oculomotor nucleus, central gray including inter stitial nucleus of Cajal and nucleus Darkschewitsch, superior colliculus and substantia nigra (reticular). In the metencephalic region, the Kölliker-Fuse nucleus, parabrachial nucleus, and the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus projected mainly to the ipsilateral lateral subdivision of NVII. In addition, the trapezoid, pontine reticular, vestibular, and motor trigeminal nuclei were observed to have predominantly ipsilateral connections to the facial nucleus. In contrast, projections from the myelencephalic region were to both the lateral and medial subdivision of NVII. The medullary reticular nucleus, ambiguus nucleus, spinal trigeminal nucleus and parvocellular reticular nucleus projected to both lateral and medial subdivisions of NVII with an ipsilateral predominance. The gigantocellular and paragigantocellular reticular nuclei, raphe magnus, external cuneate nucleus and the nucleus of the solitary tract also projected to the facial motor nucleus. Surprisingly, no direct projections to the NVII were observed from diencephalic and telencephalic regions. Our findings that the lateral subdivision of NVII which innervates vibrissa-pad-muscles (Dom et al. 1973; Martin and Lodge 1977; Watson et al. 1982) receives different metencephalic and mesencephalic projections than medial subdivision which controls pinna movement (Henkel and Edwards 1978), suggest that the functional difference between these subdivisions is mediated by the anatomically separate pathways. We confirmed our anatomical findings by eliciting exclusively vibrissa responses by electrical stimulation of the nuclei which project to the lateral subdivision of NVII.     

Gender-specific and gonadectomy-specific effects upon swim analgesia: role of steroid replacement therapy

Both gender-specific and gonadectomy-specific effects have been observed for the analgesic responses following continuous and intermittent cold-water swims (CCWS and ICWS respectively): female rats display significantly less analgesia than males, and gonadectomized rats display significantly less analgesia than sham-operated controls. The present study evaluated the effects of steroid replacement therapy with testosterone propionate (TP: 2 mg/kg, SC) upon CCWS and ICWS analgesia on the tail-flick and jump tests and hypothermia in sham-operated or gonadectomized male and female rats. Thirty days following surgery, rats received either no treatment, a sesame oil vehicle or TP for 14 days prior to, and then during testing. Relative to the no treatment condition, repeated vehicle injections in sham-operated rats eliminated the gender-specific, but did not affect the gonadectomy-specific effects upon CCWS and ICWS analgesia. TP reversed the deficits in CCWS and ICWS analgesia observed in both castrated and ovariectomized rats on both pain tests. TP only potentiated CCWS analgesia in sham-operated males on the tail-flick test. TP potentiated CCWS and ICWS hypothermia in gonadectomized rats and in male sham-operated rats. These data indicate that gonadal steroids play a major modulatory role in the etiology of swim analgesia, and that the observed gender effects are sensitive to possible adaptational variables.     

Paramagnetic macrocyclic complexes as contrast agents for MR imaging: proton nuclear relaxation rate enhancement in aqueous solution and in rat tissues

Paramagnetic macrocyclic chelates show promise as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging contrast agents due to stability and relaxivity comparable to those of DTPA-type chelates. For the three copper and manganese macrocyclic complexes studied in aqueous solution, T1 and T2 relaxivities ranged from 0.14 to 5.88 mM-1sec-1 at 6.25 MHz. In rats, the intravenous administration of 16 mumol/kg of Mn(cyclam) caused the liver T1 relaxation rate to double at 15 minutes after injection. T1 measurements by pulsed MR imaging and manganese analyses on excised tissue showed that both relaxation rate (1/T1) and manganese content of liver and kidney increase linearly with the dosage of Mn(cyclam). The linear relationship between 1/T1 and manganese content can be considered an "in tissue" relaxivity plot for the agent. The resulting relaxivity is 54 mM-1sec-1 in liver, compared with 3.1 mM-1sec-1 in aqueous solution. Although this work is preliminary, the implication for medical MR imaging applications is that macrocyclic contrast agents can be effective at approximately one-tenth the current typical dose used for gadolinium DTPA.