Nerve growth factor (NGF) has an important role in regulating sympathetic neuron survival and target field innervation during development. Here we show that glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor–related protein (GITR), a member of the TNF superfamily, and its ligand (GITRL) are co-expressed in mouse sympathetic neurons when their axons are innervating their targets under the inf...

The sympathetic nervous system is essential for maintaining mammalian homeostasis. How this intricately connected network, composed of preganglionic neurons that reside in the spinal cord and post-ganglionic neurons that comprise a chain of vertebral sympathetic ganglia, arises developmentally is incompletely understood. This problem is especially complex given the vertebral chain of sympatheti...

The relationship between the anatomy and neurochemistry of neurons in the ventral medulla oblongata in regions that is responsible for cardiovascular, airways, and respiratory regulation was investigated. Microinjections of excitant amino acid (glutamate, 100 nl, 100 mM) were made throughout the ventral medulla in anesthetized rats. Arterial blood pressure, sympathetic nerve activity and phreni...

The generation and degeneration of sympathetic neurons in the third thoracic ganglion (segment 19) of the chick were studied between embryonic days (E) 7-18 using 3H-Thymidine autoradiography and routine cell counts. Cumulative radiolabelling experiments indicated that few sympathetic neurons were generated on E6-7. 10% of the sympathetic neurons were generated on E8 and a further 20% on E9. Th...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a neuronal growth factor critical for the development and maintenance of central and peripheral neurons. GDNF is expressed in targets of innervation and provides support to several populations of large, projection neurons. To determine whether GDNF promotes retrograde survival over long axonal distances to cell bodies, we used a compartmenta...

We studied how mitochondrial Ca 2 1 transport influences [Ca 2 1 ] i dynamics in sympathetic neurons. Cells were treated with thapsigargin to inhibit Ca 2 1 accumulation by SERCA pumps and depolarized to elevate [Ca 2 1 ] i ; the recovery that followed repolarization was then examined. The total Ca 2 1 flux responsible for the [Ca 2 1 ] i recovery was separated into mitochondrial and nonmitocho...

Cardiovascular function is regulated by a dynamic balance comprised of sympathetic and parasympathetic influences. Sympathetic regulatory centers include the rostra ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus (PVN). Pre-sympathetic neurons (PSNs) in these centers project directly to sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the intermediolateral nucleus of the thoracic s...

In this report, we provide evidence that NGF and BDNF have functionally antagonistic actions on sympathetic neuron growth and target innervation, with NGF acting via TrkA to promote growth and BDNF via p75NTR to inhibit growth. Specifically, in cultured sympathetic neurons that themselves synthesize BDNF, exogenous BDNF inhibits and function-blocking BDNF antibodies enhance process outgrowth. B...

During the development of sweat gland innervation, interactions with the target tissue induce a change from noradrenergic to cholinergic and peptidergic properties. To determine whether the change in neurotransmitter properties that occurs in the sweat gland innervation occurs more generally in sympathetic neurons, we identified a new target of cholinergic sympathetic neurons in rat, the perios...

Neuropilin 1 is the specific receptor for Sema3A and plays a role in nerve fiber guidance. We report that neuropilin 1 and Sema3A mutant mouse embryos, generated by targeted gene disruption, showed displacement of sympathetic neurons and their precursors and abnormal morphogenesis in the sympathetic trunk. We also show that Sema3A suppressed the cell migration activity of sympathetic neurons fr...