| Abstract No.: | C-D3153 |
| Country: | Egypt |
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| Title: | "DISTRIBUTION OF STRETCH RECEPTOR THROUGH SPINAL CORD LENGTH IN TWO AMPHIBIAN ORDERS ANURANS AND URODELES" |
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| Authors/Affiliations: | 2 Mayada Aly*; 3 Mary Moftah; 1 Ismail Sabry;
1 Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria, Egypt
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| Content: | Since its characterization as an important neurotransmitter or neuromodulator and intracellular messenger in the brain of vertebrates, Nitric Oxide (NO) has been thoroughly studied. Numerous groups have focused on the localization of NO-producing cells in the nervous system. It is neither stored in synaptic vesicles nor released by exocytosis, it does not act via traditional receptors on post synaptic membranes. Production of NO is a key step for some early phases of neurogenesis, such as neural cell proliferation and migration and in the development and refining of neuronal connections.
NO is produced from L-arginine by three iso-forms of NO synthase (NOS). NOS possesses nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) reduction capacity (the so-called NADPH-diaphorase activity), which is used as histochemical detection method for neuronal NO-producing structures so that NADPHd has been recently identified as marker for neuronal NOS.
Immunohistochemistry with specific antibodies against NOS and enzyme histochemistry for NADPH-diaphorase, techniques yielded identical results and were equally suitable to demonstrate the nitrergic system. However, this comparison was poorly studied in the spinal cord with some preliminary knowledge stating that NO-producing cells are depolarized on stretch of the lateral margin of the spinal cord, thus serving as as intraspinal mechanoreceptors. In the present study we compared the distribution of these cells in both amphibian orders.
As aresult alarge similarity was found in the position of these cells in the ventrolateral regions of the spinal cord, probably with stretch receptor functions. In Anurans, these cells were abundant in segment (3,4) and segment (5,6) of the spinal cord while they decreased gradually until reaching the most posterior part. While in Urodeles the result is under examination.
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