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Axonal projections of Renshaw cells in the thoracic spinal cord

Saywell, SA; Ford, TW; Kirkwood, PA; (2013) Axonal projections of Renshaw cells in the thoracic spinal cord. Physiological Reports , 1 (6) , Article e00161. 10.1002/phy2.161. Green open access

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Abstract

Renshaw cells are widely distributed in all segments of the spinal cord, but detailed morphological studies of these cells and their axonal branching patterns have only been made for lumbosacral segments. For these, a characteristic distribution of terminals was reported, including extensive collateralization within 1-2 mm of the soma, but then more restricted collaterals given off at intervals from the funicular axon. Previous authors have suggested that the projections close to the soma serve inhibition of motoneurons (known to be greatest for the motor nuclei providing the Renshaw cell excitation) but that the distant projections serve mainly the inhibition of other neurons. However, in thoracic segments, inhibition of motoneurons is known to occur over two to three segments (20-40 mm) from the presumed somatic locations of the Renshaw cells. Here, we report the first detailed morphological study of Renshaw cell axons outside the lumbosacral segments, which investigated whether this different distribution of motoneuron inhibition is reflected in a different pattern of Renshaw cell terminations. Four Renshaw cells in T7 or T8 segments were intracellularly labeled with neurobiotin in anesthetized cats and their axons traced for distances ≥6 mm from the somata. The only morphological difference detected within this distance in comparison with Renshaw cells in the lumbosacral cord was a minimal taper in the funicular axons, where in the lumbosacral cord this is pronounced. Patterns of termination were virtually identical to those in the lumbosacral segments, so we conclude that these patterns are unrelated to the pattern of motoneuronal inhibition.

Type: Article
Title: Axonal projections of Renshaw cells in the thoracic spinal cord
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/phy2.161
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/phy2.161
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. PMCID: PMC3871475
Keywords: Axonal projections, Renshaw cell, interneurons, recurrent inhibition, respiratory neurons, thoracic spinal cord
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1418622
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