An electron microscope study of the dorsal gray commissure of the rat spinal cord (segment C-1)
Herrera-Lara, M.; Smith-Agreda, V.
Zeitschrift für Mikroskopisch-Anatomische Forschung 98(6): 805-812
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-3107 PMID: 6528714 Document Number: 228481
The instrinsic structure of the dorsal gray commissure (DGC) of the spinal cord (segment C-1) was studied in adult, male albino rats, with light and electron microscopic techniques. The DGC is divided into 4 zones, each corresponding to fiber-bundles or neuropil areas. The dorsal and medial fiber bundles lack a compact structure, and a number of their axons fail to cross contralaterally, losing their myelin sheath and forming synaptic contacts with the dendrites of the intracommissural neurons. The central neuropil zones of the DGC present a complex synaptic structure. Intracommissural neurons, as well as longitudinal non-myelinated fiber systems and a large number of axo-dendritic and axo-somatic synaptic contacts were described. A more complex structure of the DGC is presented.