Langford L A, Coggeshall R E
J Comp Neurol. 1981 Dec 20;203(4):745-50. doi: 10.1002/cne.902030411.
The currently accepted concept of a primary sensory cell is a cell that gives rise to a central process which passes through the dorsal root to the spinal cord and a peripheral process which passes to the periphery via a peripheral nerve. If this is correct, then there should be equal numbers of sensory axons in the dorsal root, dorsal root ganglion cells, and sensory axons in the proximal peripheral nerve. The present study obtains these counts in animals in which extraneous axons have been removed from the peripheral nerve and root. The counts indicate that there are approximately 2.3 sensory axons in the dorsal root and proximal peripheral nerve for each ganglion cell in the sacral segments of the rat. We interpret these data as indicating that there is significant branching of sensory axons in the dorsal root and proximal peripheral nerve and thus the generally accepted picture of a dorsal root ganglion cell is not correct for some, perhaps all, of these cells. We offer the speculation that this peripheral branching may be an indication of single sensory neurons having receptive fields in two separate locations, and thus this may be an anatomical explanation for certain types of referred pain.
它发出一个中枢突，该中枢突通过背根进入脊髓；同时发出一个外周突，该外周突通过外周神经到达外周。如果这是正确的，那么背根、背根神经节细胞以及近端外周神经中的感觉轴突数量应该相等。本研究在已从外周神经和神经根去除无关轴突的动物中进行了这些计数。计数结果表明，在大鼠骶段，每个神经节细胞在背根和近端外周神经中大约有2.3条感觉轴突。我们将这些数据解释为表明感觉轴突在背根和近端外周神经中存在显著分支，因此对于部分（也许是所有）这些细胞而言，普遍接受的背根神经节细胞的概念并不正确。我们推测这种外周分支可能表明单个感觉神经元在两个不同位置具有感受野，因此这可能是某些类型牵涉痛的一种解剖学解释。
