Ultrastructural analysis of sympathetic neuromuscular junctions on mesenteric veins of the guinea pig

This study reports on the detailed ultrastructure of sympathetic postganglionic varicose axon terminals on mesenteric veins leading from the ileum of the guinea pig and in particular the structural arrangement of the varicosities with venous smooth muscle cells. The response to nerve stimulation in veins has a long time course and it has been suggested that this reflects a wide separation between the site of transmitter release and the receptors on the effector cell membrane. The aim of this study was to determine the distance between individual sympathetic varicosities and smooth muscle cells in mesenteric veins. Fluorescent histochemical preparations of the sympathetic innervation of the different branches of mesenteric veins indicate the branching network of varicose axons around the vessel to be relatively dense. Electron micrographs show the innervation to be confined to the adventitia close to the medio‐adventitial border and to be predominantly catecholaminergic. A serial section ultrastructural analysis of the relationship of the varicosities with the outer smooth muscle cells showed that almost all (98%) of the exposed axon varicosities in the adventitia formed neuromuscular junctions. Three‐dimensional reconstructions from serial sections of individual varicosities have shown that the junctions have structural specialisations identical to neuromuscular junctions described on arterial vessels and similar to those found at skeletal neuromuscular junctions. The density of neuromuscular junctions on the veins was found to be similar to that on the corresponding artery in the same animal. We suggest that in veins, noradrenaline is released focally at neuromuscular junctions. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.