Autoradiographic observations on the innervation of the carotid body of the domestic fowl.

Tritiated leucine was injected into the distal vagal ganglion of 11 domestic fowl, which survived for 12-24 h under general anaesthesia. The cells of this ganglion are known to be exclusively afferent. EM autoradiography showed that in all 11 birds the vast majority of the silver grains fell upon the nervous tissues of the carotid body. In 5 of these birds a quantitative analysis was made, using point-counting morphometry. The incidence of silver grain per unit area was found to be 26 times greater in axonal endings than in the non-nervous components, and 15 times greater in axons in transit than in non-nervous components. The difference in incidence per unit area between these nervous and non-nervous components was highly significant (P less than 0.001). Of all the observed axonal endings 77% were labelled, but there is evidence that this is a substantial underestimate of the total population of afferent endings; in one bird 88% of the endings were labelled. Of the axons in transit, 18% were labelled. This low value is believed to be related to transfer of the label to the axonal endings by the fast component of axonal transport. Afferent and reciprocal synapses occurred in labelled axonal endings, which were therefore considered to have an afferent function. 'Efferent' type synapses also occurred in labelled endings, and therefore belonged to axons which in fact were afferent in function. It is concluded that the innervation of the carotid body of the domestic fowl is almost entirely afferent, the nerve cell bodies being in the distal vagal ganglion. Only very few efferent axonal endings are present. Ultrastructural features, including synaptic morphology, appear to constitute unreliable criteria for distinguishing between afferent and efferent axonal endings in the carotid body.