The morphology of Golgi-stained neurons in lamina II of the rat spinal cord.

Golgi-stained neurons in Lamina II of the rat spinal cord were examined by light microscopy. Stalked and islet cells similar to those seen in other species were found. Stalked cells were present in large numbers in the dorsal part of the lamina where they made up nearly half the population of stained cells. Islet cells were found throughout the lamina and constituted about one third of the total population. In the ventral part of the lamina half of the stained cells did not fall into either category, but could be divided into groups on the basis of dendritic spread. The axons of many of these cells either remained in Lamina II or passed ventrally into Lamina III. Some of these cells may correspond to the stellate or the II-III border cells which have been seen in human spinal cord and cat medulla respectively.