Transmitter histochemistry of the rat olfactory bulb. I. Immunohistochemical localization of monoamine synthesizing enzymes. Support for intrabulbar, periglomerular dopamine neurons.

The rat olfactory bulb was studied at the light and electron microscopic level with the indirect immunofluorescence technique and the unlabelled antibody enzyme method (PAP-technique), respectively. Antibodies to all 4 enzymes in the catecholamine synthesis were used. In the principal bulb the first two enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and DOPA decarboxylase (DDC), but not dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH), were present in a proportion of periglomerular cell bodies and dendrites indicating that these neurons synthesize dopamine (DA). This amine may therefore be released as a transmitter substance at some of the intraglomerular dendrodendritic synapses which periglomerular cells form with the mitral cells. There is evidence to suggest that some periglomerular cells use GABA as their transmitter. Thus, a morphologically and physiologically homogenous population of neurons can be subdivided on the basis of transmitter histochemical criteria. There was an impression of more DDC-positive than TH-positive fibers in the glomeruli. Such presumably DDC-positive, but TH-negative processes may represent 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) nerve terminals. DBH-positive fibers were seen in the granular, external plexiform, and very rarely, in the glomerular layers, probably representing noradrenaline (NA) nerve terminals ascending from the lower brain stem. Weakly fluorescent DDC-positive fibers may represent nerve terminals of ascending 5-HT neurons. No phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT)-positive neurons were observed.