Ultrastructural and morphometric features of the acetylcholine innervation in adult rat parietal cortex: An electron microscopic study in serial sections

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Abstract
This study was aimed at characterizing the ultrastructural morphology of the normal acetylcholine (ACh) innervation in adult rat parietal cortex. After immunostaining with a monoclonal antibody against purified rat brain choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), more than 100 immunoreactive axonal varicosities (terminals) from each layer of the Par 1 area were photographed and examined in serial thin sections across their entire volume. These varicosities were relatively small, averaging 0.6 μm in diameter, 1.6 μM2 in surface, and 0.12 μM3 in volume. In every layer, a relatively low proportion exhibited a synaptic membrane differentiation (10% in layer I, 14% in II–III, 11% in IV, 21% in V, 14% in VI), for a I–VI average of 14%. These synaptic junctions were usually single, symmetrical (>99%), and occupied a small portion of the surface of varicosities (85% of its varicosities), and the composition of the microenvironment of its varicosities suggests some randomness in their distribution at the microscopic level. It is unlikely that these ultrastructural characteristics are exclusive to the parietal region. Among other functional implications, they suggest that this system depends predominantly on volume transmission to exert its modulatory effects on cortical activity.

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