Birder L A, Roppolo J R, Iadarola M J, de Groat W C
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Departments of Pharmacology and Behavioral Neuroscience, PA 15261.
Neurosci Lett. 1991 Aug 19;129(2):193-6. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(91)90459-7.
Electrical stimulation (20-35 Hz, 2-5 V, 1.5 h) of the pelvic nerve in urethane-anesthetized rats increased the expression of c-fos protein-immunoreactivity primarily in neurons in the L6-S1 segments of the spinal cord. The neurons were localized to areas receiving afferent input from the pelvic viscera including the superficial dorsal horn, the dorsal commissure, and lateral laminae V-VII in the region of the sacral parasympathetic nucleus. These experiments indicate that (1) electrical stimulation of abdominal nerves following surgical exposure is a useful method for tracing visceral afferent pathways and (2) afferent information from the pelvic viscera is received by neurons in specific areas of the dorsal horn.
