anterior grey column

A man of 75 years of age had had lightning pains in the legs for 8 years. Clinical examination demonstrated mild pyramidal signs and involvement of the posterior columns. A morphine pump was placed in the epidural space in the lumbar region to treat the pain. He died two weeks later from a massive pulmonary embolism. The nervous system was examined using the classical techniques along with the use of poly- and monoclonal antibodies against nervous system specific proteins. The following features were demonstrated: neuroaxonal dystrophy of the posterior and anterior horns, and the posterior columns and corticospinal pathways in decreasing order of importance; angioneuromatosis of the grey matter of the lumbosacral spinal cord and loss of neurons of the dorsal spinal root ganglia and bilateral degeneration of the fasciculus gracilis...

This report describes the first autopsy case of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy (HAM). The disease mainly affected the spinal cord, particularly the lateral and anterior columns, where loss of myelin and axon was observed. The changes were bilateral and occurred mainly along the tract. Perivascular and parenchymal infiltration with lymphocytes and macrophages, as well as astrocytosis, were observed in the white and grey matters of the spinal cord. Blood vessels in the spinal cord and in the subarachnoid space of the spinal cord showed hyalinoid thickening of media and adventitia associated with infiltration of lymphocytes...

Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were made paraplegic by a complete transection of the spinal cord at lower thoracic level. One week later they were transplanted, below the level of the section, with a cell suspension prepared from the raphe region of 14-day embryos. After survival periods of 10 days to 1 year, the animals were sacrificed and the spinal cord processed for the immunocytochemical detection of 5-HT. Axons from grafted cells grew extensively into the grey matter of the host, and established axosomatic and axodendritic synapses in the anterior horn and intermediolateral column, similar to those of the intact animal...

Evidence has been obtained for the existence of two separate events occurring in the human spinal cord following posterior tibial nerve (PTN) stimulation. These events can be recorded on the surface in unanesthetized individuals. The first is an ascending wave which is conducted up to the cord at constant velocity and has a relatively short refractory period consistent with a compound nerve action potential. This represents the afferent volley traversing the lumbosacral plexus and the ascending dorsal columns...

The CNS pathology of 10 autopsy cases of Japanese HAM/TSP patients with a serological confirmation of HTLV-I infection was reviewed. The essential histopathological feature was a chronic progressive inflammatory process with marked parenchymal exudation of lymphocytes and monocytes into both the grey and white matter of the spinal cord, uniquely perpetuating for more than 3 years after the onset of neurological symptoms, and resulting in severe degeneration of the white matter accompanied by marked glio-mesenchymal tissue reactions...

In order to evaluate the reciprocity of olivo-cerebellar and cerebello-olivary connections, a detailed description of the cerebellar nucleo-olivary projection in the rat is presented using small, iontophoretic injections of the anterograde tracer Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin. Sparse projections were found to arise from the rostral part of the medial cerebellar nucleus toward the lateral part of the caudal medial accessory olive. Its medial parts receive a projection from the dorsolateral protuberance of the medial cerebellar nucleus...

The projections of the deep cerebellar nuclei in the pigeon have been delineated using autoradiographic and histochemical (WGA-HRP) tracing techniques. A medial (CbM) and lateral (CbL) cerebellar nucleus are recognized and CbM may be further partitioned into internal, intermediate, and intercalate divisions. As in mammals, most extracerebellar projections of CbM travel in the fasciculus uncinatus (FU); the rest travel with those of CbL in the brachium conjunctivum (BC). In the pigeon, both of these pathways are bilaterally but primarily contralaterally projecting systems...

Almost all catecholamine (CA)-containing nerve terminals in the ventral column, intermediate grey and ventral half of the dorsal column disappeared after bilateral stereotaxic lesions of nucleus locus coeruleus, as revealed by fluorescence histochemistry. Some of the CA nerve terminals in the dorsal half of the column seemed to be unaffected by the lesions, as well as the CA terminals innervating the thoracic sympathetic lateral column and the band of nerve terminals crossing the midline and innervating the central grey...

Horseradish peroxidase was applied to proximal ventral roots of the coccygeal and sacral spinal cord of cats. Subsequent histochemical reaction resulted in extensive staining of spinal cord neurons that had processes in the ventral roots. This procedure was used to study four issues concerning ventral root neurons. (1) Extensive transverse dendritic arborizations were revealed for large and small neurons presumed to be alpha and gamma motoneurons respectively. Dendrites from these neurons were found to project heavily into the ipsilateral white matter, both laterally and ventrally...