An electron microscopic radioautographic study of the uptake of tritiated serotonin by nerve fibres in the posterior salivary duct and gland of cephalopods.

In the posterior salivary duct and gland of Octopus vulgaris and of Eledone cirrhosa, the duct secretory nerve trunks and their ramifications in the gland tubules include many fibres that incorporate labelled serotonin. However, there are also unlabelled secretory fibres, which cannot be discriminated from incorporating fibres on morphological grounds. Neuroglandular junctions are not apparently established by incorporating fibres. In the duct, the motor nerve trunks contain a small number of labelled fibres, and nerve bundles supplying the duct muscle contain, in variable proportions, serotonin incorporating fibres. Both labelled and unlabelled nerve fibres reach the duct muscle fibres, but neuromuscular junctions involve only unlabelled presynaptic fibres. The nerve fibres which join the gland muscle are usually unlabelled, and the small quota of incorporating fibres in the motor trunks apparently supply only duct tissues. Both secretory and motor trunks, originating from different ganglia, can be considered to contain heterogeneous fibres, releasing different neurotransmitters at the terminals. Certain of these fibres could be serotoninergic.