Triušio prieširdžių intrakardinių nervinių mazgų imunohistocheminė analizė

Author: Adina Haimov Title: Immunohistochemical analysis of intracardiac ganglia in rabbit atria Scientific Supervisor: Hermanas Inokaitis, Institute of Anatomy, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas. BACKROUND: The intrinsic neural plexuses and the immunohistochemical properties of neurons in the rabbit heart have not been fully investigated, despite the extensively use of this model in experimental cardiology therefore, the aim of the present study was to identify the neurochemical properties of ganglionic cells from the rabbit atria. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the structural organization of the rabbit intracardiac ganglia, to identify the distribution of cholinergic, adrenergic and nitrergic neural structures in the whole-mount rabbit’s atria heart preparations using double immunohistochemical labeling and to determine the correlations between neurons and neurochemical phenotype and somata size. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 6 juvenile rabbit hearts were used in this study. Two combinations of double labeling for choline acetyltransferase + nitric oxide synthase (ChAT + nNOS) and ChAT+ tyrosin hydroxylase (TH) were analyzed in order to identify: neuronal somata purely positive for ChAT, TH, nNOS and biphenotypic simultaneously positive for ChAT+TH and ChAT+TH. The quantity of neurons were calculated and then expressed in percent for each picture. Size and shape were also examined. RESULTS: Atrial ganglionic cell bodies were positive for all applied neuronal markers. Biphenotypic neural cells positive simultaneously for ChAT+nNOS, and ChAT+TH were discovered as well. Ganglionic cell bodies positive for TH or nNOS were in minority compared with other types, while ChAT positive somata predominated absolutely in rabbit atrial ganglia. Biphenotipic cells found to be the largest among other distinct phenotype, and expressed large long axis with small short axis compered to ChAT, nNOS and TH positive neurons. CONCLUSION: The rabbit atrial ganglia showed high heterogeneity of neural cells that can be comparable with intracardiac ganglia of other mammalians including human, therefore rabbit heart is suitable model for further cardiac experiments