Direct synaptic contacts on the myenteric ganglia of the rat stomach from the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus.

The myenteric ganglia regulate not only gastric motility but also secretion, because a submucous plexus is sparsely developed in the rodent stomach. We have examined whether the neurons of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) have direct synaptic contacts on the myenteric ganglia and the ultrastructure of the vagal efferent terminals by using wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). The myenteric ganglia of the rat were composed of four types of neurons, i.e., small, medium-sized, large, and elongated neurons. The average numbers of axosomatic terminals per profile were 2.0 on the small neurons, 3.1 on the medium-sized neurons, 1.2 on the large neurons, and 4.2 on the elongated neuron. More than half of the axosomatic terminals contained round vesicles and formed asymmetric synaptic contacts on the small, medium-sized, and large neurons. About 80% of the axosomatic terminals on the elongated neurons contained pleomorphic vesicles and formed asymmetric synaptic contacts. When WGA-HRP was injected into the DMV, many anterogradely labeled terminals were found around the myenteric neurons. The labeled terminals were large (3.16 +/- 0.10 microm) and contacted exclusively the somata. Most of them (about 90%) contained round vesicles and formed asymmetric synaptic contacts. Serial ultrathin sections revealed that almost all neurons in a ganglion received projections from the DMV. The vagal axon terminals generally contacted the medium-sized or the elongated neurons, whereas a few labeled terminals contacted the small and the large neurons. The present results indicate that the DMV projects to all types of neurons and that their axon terminals contain mostly round synaptic vesicles and form asymmetric synaptic contacts.