Synaptic connections of a periodontal primary afferent neuron within the subnucleus oralis of the cat.

The central axon of a primary afferent neuron that responded to light mechanical stimulation of the lower premolar teeth in a fast adapting fashion was intra-axonally injected with horseradish peroxidase in the cat. The labeled terminals within the rostrodorsomedial (Vo.r) and dorsomedial (Vo.dm) parts of subnucleus oralis were examined electron microscopically. The labeled ending had pale axoplasm, contained clear spherical synaptic vesicles, and formed multiple synapses with dendrites and/or unlabeled axonal endings with pleomorphic vesicles (P-endings). In these synaptic contacts, the labeled primary ending was presynaptic to dendrites and postsynaptic to P-endings. Labeled endings simultaneously synapsing with both dendrites and P-endings were more frequent in Vo.dm (28%) than in Vo.r (8.3%).