Development of neurochemical labeling in the intermediolateral nucleus of cats' spinal cord

Abstract

NeuN is a neuron‐specific nuclear protein expressed in most mature neuronal cell types, with some exceptions. These exceptions are known mainly for the brain but not for the spinal cord or the spinal visceral networks for which only scarce information is available. One of the most defined visceral structures in the spinal cord is the sympathetic intermediolateral nucleus located within the thoracolumbar segments. We investigated the NeuN staining in the intermediolateral nucleus and compared it with the staining for two neurochemical markers of visceral neurons: nitric oxide synthase and calcium‐binding protein calretinin in adult cats and in kittens aged 0, 14, and 35 days. A clear NeuN‐immunonegativity was obtained for intermediolateral neurons labeled for nitric oxide synthase for both adult cats and kittens. In contrast, a matched immunopositivity for the NeuN and calretinin was obtained, showing an age‐dependent degree of this colocalization, which was high in newborn kittens, decreased on postnatal 14 and 35 days and persisted at a moderate level up to adulthood. Perhaps our data displayed a heterogeneity of the intermediolateral neurons.

Neurochemical atlas of the cat spinal cord

“…The antibody against NeuN (Sigma-Aldrich, Cat.# MAB377, RRID: AB_2298772 ) is a mouse monoclonal IgG1 recognizing 46 and 48 kDa bands on Western blots of a cat brain ( Merkulyeva et al, 2022 ). The immunostaining of sections through the cat spinal cord (used at 1:5000) produced a pattern of NeuN labeling that was identical to previous descriptions ( Veshchitskii et al, 2022 ), the total population of exclusively neuronal cells.…”

“…The high resolution of images used allows to count and measure different neurons; this approach is useful for the morphological screening of the neuronal populations of the total spinal cord. Currently, only limited data exist about the neurochemical organization of the gray matter of the feline spinal cord, and attention has been mainly focused on particular segments or particular cell populations of the spinal cord ( Arvidsson et al, 1989 ; Traub et al, 1989 ; Carr et al, 1998 , 1999 ; Ritz et al, 2001 ; Christiansen et al, 2003 ; Anelli and Heckman, 2005 ; Merkulyeva et al, 2016 ; Veshchitskii et al, 2021 , 2022 ). We believe that this atlas will help to fill the gaps in the neuromorphological knowledge of the cat spinal cord.…”

The autonomic nervous system from a morphofunctional perspective: Historical overview and current concepts over the last two centuries highlighting contributions from Eastern Europe

“…The last two contributions to this special issue deal with neurochemical features of specific areas in the brain (Romanova et al, 2023) and the spinal cord (Veshchitskii et al, 2023), known to be part of the central nervous system control of the autonomic outflow.…”