Long-range afferents in the rat spinal cord. II. Arborizations that penetrate grey matter.

1. The caudal extent of the collateral arborizations of entering sensory fibres in rat spinal cord was investigated by two methods: bulk labelling of peripheral nerves by injection of horseradish peroxidase conjugated to cholera toxin (B-HRP) and by antidromic stimulation using small currents from microelectrodes in the spinal cord while recording from single units in peripheral nerve or dorsal root. 2. The results show that injection of B-HRP into the sural or sciatic nerve labelled sural afferents in the grey matter three to four segments caudal to their root entry and sciatic nerve fibres were located in S4, the most caudal segment examined, four to six segments caudal to their root entry. 3. Detailed mapping with microelectrode stimulation showed that the parent descending fibres from filaments dissected from the L1 dorsal root coursed more than 20 mm, seven to eight segments caudal to the entry point in the dorsal columns and sent branches into the grey matter. Single units from the sural nerve were also followed caudally into the S2 and S3 spinal cord segments and also issued collateral branches into the grey matter. 4. The present results suggest that there is close agreement in the caudal penetration of long-ranging afferents by using complementary anatomical and electrophysiological methods.