Extrinsic innervation of the rat pancreas: demonstration of vagal sensory neurones in the rat by retrograde tracing.

The extrinsic innervation of the rat pancreas was examined using retrograde tracing with the fluorescent dye True Blue. Retrogradely-labelled cell bodies were seen bilaterally in the nodose ganglia, and in the spinal ganglia at levels T6-L2. Labelled cells were also seen in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, the nucleus ambiguus and the coeliac ganglion. Our results provide new and direct evidence for a vagal sensory innervation of the pancreas.