Characterisation of the primary afferent spinal innervation of mouse uterus

The primary afferent innervation of the uterus is incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to identify the location and characteristics of primary afferent neurons that innervate the uterine horn of mice and correlate the different morphological types of putative primary afferent nerve endings, immunoreactive to the sensory marker, calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP). Using retrograde tracing, injection of 5-10µL of 1,1'-didodecyl-3,3,3,3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) into discrete single sites in each uterine horn revealed a biomodal distribution of sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) with peak labelling occurring between T13-L3 and a second smaller peak between L6-S1. The mean cross sectional area of labelled cells was 463 µm2 +/- SEM. A significantly greater proportion of labelled neurons consisted of small cell bodies (