Taguchi H, Masuda T, Yokota T
Department of Physiology, Medical College of Shiga, Otsu, Japan.
Brain Res. 1987 Dec 15;436(2):240-52. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(87)91668-4.
Neurons receiving cardiac sympathetic afferent input were studied in the nucleus ventralis posterolateralis (VPL) of the cat thalamus. Animals were anesthetized with urethan-chloralose. Units in the VPL were classified into 3 classes; low-threshold mechanoreceptive (LTM), nociceptive specific (NS) and wide dynamic range (WDR) units. Units driven by electrical stimulation of the left inferior cardiac nerve (ICN) were not included in the population of LTM units, but 43.5% of NS units and 68.8% of WDR units were excited by this stimulation. Units exclusively responsive to cardiac sympathetic afferents were not found. Both NS and WDR units were located in the shell region of the caudal VPL. NS units responsive to cardiac sympathetic afferents had a circumscribed cutaneous receptive field in the area corresponding to tactile dermatomes C5-T13. WDR units receiving cardiac sympathetic afferent input had at least a part of their receptive fields in the same area. These results suggest that the shell region of the caudal VPL constitutes a thalamic link in a cardiac pain pathway, and that cardiac and cutaneous pain systems share a common projection locus in the VPL.
在猫丘脑腹后外侧核（VPL）中对接受心脏交感传入输入的神经元进行了研究。动物用乌拉坦 - 氯醛糖麻醉。VPL中的神经元分为3类：低阈值机械感受性（LTM）、伤害性特异性（NS）和广动力范围（WDR）神经元。由左侧心下神经（ICN）电刺激驱动的神经元不包括在LTM神经元群体中，但43.5%的NS神经元和68.8%的WDR神经元受到这种刺激的兴奋。未发现仅对心脏交感传入有反应的神经元。NS和WDR神经元均位于尾侧VPL的壳区。对心脏交感传入有反应的NS神经元在对应于触觉皮节C5 - T13的区域有一个限定的皮肤感受野。接受心脏交感传入输入的WDR神经元至少有一部分感受野在同一区域。这些结果表明，尾侧VPL的壳区构成了心脏疼痛通路中的丘脑连接，并且心脏和皮肤疼痛系统在VPL中共享一个共同的投射位点。
