Sources of inputs to longitudinal muscle motor neurons and ascending interneurons in the guinea-pig small intestine.

Light- and electron-microscopic studies were used to investigate connections between specific subgroups of neurons in the myenteric plexus of the guinea-pig small intestine. Inputs to two classes of calretinin-immunoreactive (IR) nerve cells, longitudinal muscle motor neurons and ascending interneurons, were examined. Inputs from calbindin-IR primary sensory neurons and from three classes of descending interneurons were studied. Electron-microscopic analysis showed that calbindin-IR axons formed two types of inputs, synapses and close contacts, on calretinin-IR neurons. About 40% of inputs to the longitudinal muscle motor neurons and 70% to ascending interneurons were calbindin-IR. Approximately 50% of longitudinal muscle motor neurons were surrounded by bombesin-IR dense pericellular baskets and 40% by closely apposed varicosities. At the electron-microscope level, the bombesin-IR varicosities were found to form synapses and close contacts with the motor neurons. Dense pericellular baskets with bombesin-IR surrounded 36% of all ascending interneurons, and a further 17% had closely apposed varicosities. Somatostatin- and 5-HT-IR descending interneurons provided no dense pericellular baskets to calretinin-IR nerve cells. Thus, calretinin-IR, longitudinal muscle motor neurons and ascending interneurons receive direct synaptic inputs from intrinsic primary sensory neurons and from non-cholinergic, bombesin-IR, descending interneurons.