We report a role for long-distance retrograde neurotrophin signaling in the establishment of synapses in the sympathetic nervous system. Target-derived NGF is both necessary and sufficient for formation of postsynaptic specializations on dendrites of sympathetic neurons. This, in turn, is a prerequisite for formation of presynaptic specializations, but not preganglionic axonal ingrowth from the...

Neurotrophins influence the epigenetic shaping of the vertebrate nervous system by regulating neuronal numbers during development and synaptic plasticity. Here we attempt to determine whether these growth factors can also regulate neurotransmitter plasticity. As a model system we used the selection between noradrenergic and cholinergic neurotransmission by paravertebral sympathetic neurons. Dev...

A prerequisite for many studies of neurons in culture is a means of determining their original identity. We needed such a technique to study the interactions in vitro between a class of spinal cord neurons, sympathetic preganglionic neurons, and their normal target, neurons from the sympathetic chain. Here, we describe how we use two highly fluorescent carbocyanine dyes, which differ in color b...

We precisely localized and morphologically characterized sympathetically correlated neurons in the acutely transected spinal cord of the rat. We have shown that these neurons are likely members of the spinal networks that generate sympathetic activity after spinal cord transection. In humans with injured spinal cords, these networks are responsible for hypertensive crises that occur in response...

Lorentz CU, Alston EN, Belcik T, Lindner JR, Giraud GD, Habecker BA. Heterogeneous ventricular sympathetic innervation, altered -adrenergic receptor expression, and rhythm instability in mice lacking the p75 neurotrophin receptor. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 298: H1652–H1660, 2010. First published February 26, 2010; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01128.2009.—Sympathetic nerves stimulate cardiac funct...