Origin and distribution of cerebral vascular innervation from superior cervical, trigeminal and spinal ganglia investigated with retrograde and anterograde WGA-HRP tracing in the rat

Peripheral sources of cerebral vascular innervation have been investigated with retrograde and anterograde neuronal tracing of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP) in the rat. For retrograde identification of sources of innervation, WGA-HRP was applied to the exposed basilar artery through a fine slit in the overlying meninges, and sections of brain and peripheral ganglia were reacted with tetramethylbenzidine for detection of the tracer. A high density of tetramethylbenzidine reaction product was observed around the basilar artery and in the surrounding pial tissue, but the application sites were not completely selective since some tracer always had spread into the ventral brain stem. Retrogradely labelled cell bodies were identified in the superior cervical, stellate, first and second spinal, and trigeminal ganglia, i.e. these ganglia may represent origins of basilar artery innervation. In a second series of experiments, microinjections of WGA-HRP were placed into the indicated ganglia to obtain anterograde labelling of nerve fibres on whole-mounts of the cerebral vessels. Injections into trigeminal ganglia labelled nerve fibres on the ipsilateral half of the circle of Willis, as well as the contralateral anterior cerebral artery and the rostral part of the basilar artery. The first and second spinal ganglia projected to the vertebrobasilar arteries, while the ipsilateral part of the internal carotid (outside the circle of Willis) received fibres from the second spinal ganglion. Nerve fibres originating in trigeminal and spinal ganglia were organised in bundles, and between these a sparse plexus of thin single fibres appeared. Injection of WGA-HRP into superior cervical ganglion labelled a plexus of nerve fibres on the ipsilateral circle of Willis and the (rostral) basilar artery. These experiments demonstrated the origin and distribution of sympathetic and sensory innervation to major cerebral arteries in the rat.