GABAergic neurons in the mammalian inferior olive and ventral medulla detected by glutamate decarboxylase immunocytochemistry.

Neurons containing glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) (presumed GABAergic neurons) were mapped by immunocytochemistry in the ventral medulla of rat, rabbit, cat, rhesus monkey, and human, with emphasis on the inferior olive. In all species, three categories of GABAergic neurons were identified: periolivary neurons in the gray matter and the white matter surrounding the inferior olive, internuclear neurons located in the white matter between the subnuclei of the inferior olive, and intranuclear neurons located within the olivary gray matter. The intranuclear GABAergic neurons of the inferior olive had a characteristic morphology which differed from non-GABAergic olivary neurons; they were usually smaller, and, wherever their processes were stained, they had radiating, sparsely branching dendrites. They were also usually distinguished from the other GABAergic neurons by their smaller size. The intraolivary GABAergic neurons constituted only a minor proportion of the total olivary neuronal population, but they were concentrated in regions of the olive that varied by species. In the rat, they were situated in the rostral tip of the medial accessory olive and in the caudal subdivision of the dorsal accessory olive, while in the rabbit, they were located in the caudal two-thirds of the medial accessory olive, in the dorsal cap, and in the ventral lateral outgrowth. Such neurons were extremely rare in the cat; only a few were found in the rostral parts of the principal olive, the medial accessory olive, and the dorsal accessory olive. In the rhesus monkey, the principal olive and the lateral region of the rostral medial accessory olive contained most of the intranuclear GABAergic neurons, but some were also present in the dorsal accessory olive. In the human, such neurons occurred in the principal olive, the dorsal accessory olive and the rostral medial accessory olive, but as in the rhesus monkey, most were observed in the principal olive.