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Figure 3 | Bioelectronic Medicine

Figure 3

From: Impact of Bioelectronic Medicine on the Neural Regulation of Pelvic Visceral Function

Figure 3

Primary afferent and spinal interneuronal pathways involved in micturition. (A) Primary afferent pathways to the L6 spinal cord of the rat project to regions of the dorsal commissure (DCM), the superficial dorsal horn (DH) and the sacral parasympathetic nucleus (SPN) that contain parasympathetic preganglionic neurons. The afferent nerves consist of myelinated (Aδ) axons, which respond to bladder distension and contraction, and unmyelinated (C) axons, which respond to noxious stimuli. (B) Spinal interneurons that express c-fos after the activation of bladder afferents by a noxious stimulus (acetic acid) to the bladder are located in similar regions of the L6 spinal segment. (C) Spinal interneurons involved in bladder reflexes (labeled by transneuronal transport of pseudorabies virus injected into the urinary bladder) are localized to the regions of the spinal cord that contain primary afferents and c-fos. Some of these interneurons provide excitatory and inhibitory inputs to the parasympathetic preganglionic neurons located in the SPN. (D) The laminar organization of the cat sacral spinal cord, showing the location of parasympathetic preganglionic neurons in the intermediolateral region of laminae V and VII (shaded area). CC, central canal; IL, intermediolateral nucleus; LT, Lissauer tract; VM, ventromedial nucleus (Onuf nucleus). Reprinted with permission from (20): Fowler CJ, Griffiths D, de Groat WC. (2008) The neural control of micturition. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 9:453–66.

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