• Applied Microscopy
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.299-305
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• 2006

Onuf's nucleus, which is located in the ventral horn, has been known to innervate the striated muscles of the urethral and anal sphincter muscles via the pudendal nerve Onuf's nuclei are resistant to pathologic condition such as poliovirus. The reason why the motor neurons in Onuf's nucleus are less degenerated is not certain until now. The present study aims at updating the microscopical characteristics including its location the Onuf's nucleus innervating the external urethral sphincter, and ultrastructures of the zinc-enriched (ZEN) terminals synaptically-contacting with Onuf's motor neurons in the rat spinal gray matter by using HRP tracing method and zinc selenium autometallography, respectively. Based on HRP tracing method, Onuf's nuclei were located adjacent lateral dendritic projections of the ventral horn. Their shape was almost round at lumbar level, but oval at sacral segment of spinal cord. In size, their somata were smaller than that of other motor nuclei. In AMG stained sections, Onuf's nuclei were innervated by highly concentrated ZEN terminals, and contained small and middle-sized ZEN, but totally void of large ZEN terminals. AMG silver grains were confined to presynaptic ZEN terminals against dendritic elements and somata of the Onuf's motor neurons. A majority of the ZEN terminals contained flattened synaptic vesicles and made symmetrical synaptic specializations.