The rat's postero-orbital sinus hair: I. Brainstem projections and the effect of infraorbital nerve section at different ages.

The central terminations, in the trigeminal nucleus, of afferents from the rat's postero-orbital (PO) sinus hair have been investigated with transganglionic transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and succinic dehydrogenase (SDH) histochemistry. The normal pattern of terminations has been compared with that found after section of an adjacent nerve, the infraorbital (IO) nerve, at three ages: neonatal, 1 week old, and adult. The PO afferent fibres have three separate representations in the brainstem--in trigeminal sensory nucleus principalis (Vp) and rostral subnucleus oralis (Vo), in trigeminal subnucleus interpolaris (Vi), and in caudal trigeminal subnucleus caudalis (Vc) and C1 dorsal horn. In coronal sections the areas of terminations were seen as oval patches lying ventrolaterally in Vp, Vo, and Vi and ventromedially in Vc and C1. Following neonatal IO nerve section the terminal areas were approximately doubled in Vp, Vo, and Vi but were unchanged in Vc and C1. IO nerve section at day 7 also caused a significant, though smaller (1.4x compared with 2.0x), increase in the terminal areas in the rostral three nuclei, without changing Vc and C1. However, no significant change in area occurred after adult IO nerve section. SDH histochemistry at 3 to 4 weeks of age showed patches of terminals on both normal and lesioned sides consistent with those seen after HRP. Previous studies have reported increased functional representation of surrounding intact skin regions, including the PO sinus hairs, after neonatal but not adult, IO nerve section. The present results show that there are concomitant anatomical changes. Like the functional results, the extent of the anatomical changes are dependent on the maturity of the rat when lesioned.