Extended survival time following pseudorabies virus injection labels the suprapontine neural network controlling the bladder and urethra in the rat.

The central neurons that are involved in control of the urinary bladder and proximal urethra in adult male rats were identified by retrograde transport of the viral transneural tracer pseudorabies virus (PRV, Bartha strain). At 5 days post-injection, PRV-infected neurons were found in suprapontine central nervous system nuclei including ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, magnocellular division of the red nucleus, lateral hypothalamus and paraventricular nucleus, retrochiasmic region and suprachiasmatic nucleus. At days 6 and 7 PRV-infected neurons were observed in the amygdala, lateral septal nucleus, hippocampus, and frontal motor, piriform, and perirhinal cortices. These results identify the supraspinal neural networks that are involved in control of the lower urinary tract, and demonstrate the utility of long survival times to label higher-order neurons with PRV.