A light and electron microscopic study of serotonin-immunoreactive fibers and terminals in the monkey sensory-motor cortex.

Immunocytochemical methods were used to study the distribution and ultrastructure of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) immunoreactive fibers innervating the monkey sensory-motor cortex. Beaded 5-HT positive fibers were found in all cortical layers of both areas but with relatively fewer in middle cortical layers. Examination of 2 micron-thick plastic sections at the light microscope level, revealed that the vast majority of the bouton-like structures on the fibers lay in the neuropil and not adjacent to neuronal somata. A few beaded immunoreactive fibers were seen around certain pyramidal and non-pyramidal cell somata, very occasionally forming modest pericellular ramifications. Serial reconstructions made from electron micrographs after resectioning the 2 micron-thick sections, revealed that the dilatations of the fibers are 5-HT positive boutons but the boutons examined rarely formed morphologically identifiable synaptic contacts. Of 191 reconstructed boutons only 5 made contacts with obvious membrane specializations, all of which were of the asymmetrical type. No immunoreactive synaptic contacts were seen on pyramidal cell somata in the cortex, nor on dendrites or somata in the white matter underlying the cortex, although 5-HT positive boutons commonly lay closely adjacent to neuronal profiles in both sites. 5-HT fibers in the cortex and white matter have a similar morphological appearance and both myelinated and unmyelinated types are seen.