Sympathetic and sensory innervations are heterogeneously distributed in relation to the blood vessels at the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle origin of man.

By using immunohistochemistry and antibodies to a general nerve marker, protein gene product (PGP) 9.5, the overall innervation at the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB) muscle origin was investigated in patients with tennis elbow and in healthy controls. The autonomic innervation was studied by using antibodies to neuropeptide Y (NPY), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The sensory innervation was visualized by using antibodies to substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide. PGP 9.5 immunoreactions were detected in association with small blood vessels and arteries and within nerve bundles. There was, however, heterogeneity in the perivascular nerve fiber distribution since some blood vessels exhibited a high degree of PGP 9.5 innervation and some negligible or no such innervation at all. There was marked TH/NPY innervation in the walls of a subpopulation of the arteries, basically no VIP-containing nerves, and sensory innervation restricted to the small blood vessels. These observations show that the ECRB muscle origin is supplied with heterogeneously distributed sympathetic and sensory innervations and, furthermore, that there appears to be an imbalance between the vasoconstrictor and vasodilator innervations along the vascular tree in this region.