Cholinergic neurons in the nuclear formations of the human fetal medulla oblongata
Motavkin, P.A.; Okhotin, V.E.
Arkhiv Anatomii Gistologii i Embriologii 84(1): 24-31
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0004-1947 PMID: 6838384 Document Number: 219320
The medulla oblongata of the human fetuses 22-27 wk old was studied. Histochemical methods for cholinacetyltransferase (ChAT) and partly for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were used. Nuclei (25) were described; 4-types of neurons with a low, middle, high and very high ChAT activity were revealed in them. In the motor nuclei, neurons with a high, and in the sensitive nuclei, with a low ChAT activity predominate. In 13 nuclei, relative content of the cholinergic neurons was calculated; it is low in the lateral reticular nucleus and in the Roller's nucleus (49-53%), high, in nuclei of the craniocerebral nerves (92-100%). In the motor neurons of the segmentary centers, there is a certain correlation between the ChAT and AChE activity; in other neural centers (the inferior olive, the reticular substance nuclei), there is no such coincidence.