The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
Department of Anatomy, College of Basic Medicine, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
PLoS One. 2018 Jul 9;13(7):e0200260. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200260. eCollection 2018.
Recent studies have identified that the myodural bridge (MDB) is located between the suboccipital muscles and cervical dura mater in the posterior atlanto-occipital interspace within humans. The myodural bridge has been considered to have a significant role in physiological functions. However, there is little information about the myodural bridge in marine mammals; we conducted this study to investigate and examine the morphology of the myodural bridge in a sperm whale. We also aim to discuss the physiological functions of the myodural bridge. In this study, a 15.1-meter long sperm whale carcass was examined. Multiple methods were conducted to examine the bridges of the sperm whale which included dissection, P45 plastination and histological analysis. This study confirmed the existence of the myodural bridge in the sperm whale and shows there are two types of the bridge in the sperm whale: one type was the occipital-dural bridge (ODB), the other type was the MDB. A large venous plexus was found within the epidural space and this venous plexus is thought to contain a great amount of blood when in deep water and thus the movements of suboccipital muscles could be a unique power source that drives cerebrospinal fluid circulation.
最近的研究表明，人类在后枕寰枢间区，于枕下肌群和颈段硬脊膜之间存在肌硬脑膜桥（MDB）。肌硬脑膜桥在生理功能方面具有重要作用。然而，关于海洋哺乳动物的肌硬脑膜桥的信息很少；我们进行了这项研究，以调查和检查抹香鲸的肌硬脑膜桥的形态。我们还旨在讨论肌硬脑膜桥的生理功能。在这项研究中，检查了一条 15.1 米长的抹香鲸尸体。采用了多种方法来检查抹香鲸的桥，包括解剖、P45 塑化和组织学分析。本研究证实了抹香鲸肌硬脑膜桥的存在，并表明抹香鲸有两种类型的桥：一种是枕硬脑膜桥（ODB），另一种是 MDB。在硬脊膜外腔发现了一个大的静脉丛，当在深水中时，这个静脉丛被认为含有大量的血液，因此枕下肌群的运动可能是驱动脑脊液循环的独特动力源。
