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Collaterals of recurrent laryngeal nerve fibres innervate the thymus: a fluorescent tracer and HRP investigation of efferent vagal neurons in the rat brainstem
Authors:Atanassios Dovas  Maria Luisa Lucchi  Ruggero Bortolami  Annamaria Grandis  Angela R Palladino  Elisa Banelli  Mauro Carretta  Franco Magni  Nazareno Paolocci
Affiliation:aIstituto di Patologia Generale, Cattedra di Fisiologia Umana, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Perugia, Policlinico Monteluce, P.O. Box 58, Succ. 3, Monteluce, 06122 Perugia, Italy;bDipartimento di Morfofisiologia Veterinaria e Produzioni Animali, Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Bologna, Via Tolara di Sopra 20, 40064 Ozzano dell'Emilia, Bologna, Italy
Abstract:The origin and course of efferent vagal fibers, which innervate the rat thymus, were investigated by a fluorescent retrograde double labeling method, using Fast blue (FB) and Diamidino yellow dihydrochloride (DY) as tracers. In the same animal, one tracer was injected into the cranial portion of the right lobe of the thymus and the other dye was deposited around the cut end of the right recurrent laryngeal nerve. The neuronal population giving origin to the recurrent nerve was mapped by using retrograde labeling with HRP applied to the central stump of the nerve. The HRP retrograde axonal transport showed that most efferent vagal fibers of the recurrent nerve have their perikarya in the nucleus retroambigualis (NRA), nucleus ambiguus (NA), and to a lesser extent in the nucleus retrofacialis (NRF). In fluorescent retrograde double labeling of thymus and recurrent laryngeal nerve both single and double labeled cells were found. The cells labeled by the injections into the thymus were colocalized with the neurons labeled by the tracer deposited in the recurrent laryngeal nerve to the NRA, NA, and NRF. Moreover along the rostrocaudal extent of the NRF and NA double labeled cells were present, showing that some of the thymic efferents are collaterals of the recurrent nerve fibers. Our experiments shown that some thymic vagal fibres originate from neurons of nucleus dorsalis nervi vagi (NDV) as demonstrated both by HRP and FB injected thymuses. The possible role of these efferents in thymic function is briefly discussed.
Keywords:Thymus   Vagus nerve nuclei   Recurrent laryngeal nerve   Retrograde tracer
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