Principles of morphogenesis of the visceral innervation during different stages of human postnatal development
Stovichek, G.V.
Morfologiia 125(3): 14-18
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 1026-3543 PMID: 15359686 Document Number: 567889
This atricle presents the results of the studies of the neurovascular complexes in intestinal arteries, spleen, ovary, testis, thyroid gland, liver, kidney, heart, brain, common carotid, femoral and humeral arteries and great saphenous vein, obtained from neonates, mature and old humans. Within each age group, the normative parameters of adventitial plexuses are established according to the number of macro-microscopic and microscopic nerve bundles and their absolute and relative content of thin, intermediate and thick myelinated nerve fibers (MNFs) (Weigert-Pal's staining), relative density of acetylcholinesterase-positive fibers in nerve plexuses (Koelle-Gomori's and Karnovsky-Ruts methods), presence of destructive changes in MNFs (Bielschowsky-Gross's method). Comparison of adventitial plexuses construction in different arteries suggests the regularity in the development of nervous connections of visceral organs in human postnatal ontogenesis according to the following periods: productive, stabilization and involution. Productive period is characterized by the increase in the number of nerves and their MNF content, formation of heterogeneous population of MNFs belonging to different morpho-functional classes. In the period of relative stabilization no changes were found in the number of nerves and their MNF content, while after the age of 60 massive MNF destruction was detected. Organ specificity and an individual status of the nervous connections of the organs studied during postnatal human life was demonstrated.