The origin of sensory innernation of the peritoneum in the rat

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The distribution of sensory neurons innervating the peritoneum was studied using axonal transport of fluoro-gold. The tracer was injected to parietal peritoneum, diaphragm, mesentery, mesocolon, visceral peritoneum covering the stomach, small intestine, and colon. After ten days of survival period bilateral dorsal root ganglia from C2 to S6, and the nodose ganglia were dissected. The cryostat sections of these ganglia were mounted on glass slides and observed with a fluorescence microscope. In cases where the tracer was placed on the peritoneum covering the abdominal wall, labeled neurons were observed only in the ipsilateral dorsal root ganglia. A small number of neurons in nodose and cervical dorsal root ganglia of both sides were labeled after placing the tracer on the central part of diaphragm.When fluoro-gold was applied to the peripheral part of the diaphragm, nodose ganglion was negative, and dorsal root ganglia from T6 to T12 were positive. Many neurons in the nodose ganglia in addition to somata in the dorsal root ganglia from T4 to T13 were labeled when the tracer was placed on the peritoneum lining the stomach, small intestine or caecum. Labeled neurons were observed in the nodose and dorsal root ganglia from T13 to L2 and L5 to S1 after applying the tracer on to the colon. Ganglion cells in the nodose and dorsal root ganglia from T5 to T13 were positive when fluoro-gold was placed on the mesentery. These results suggest that most of the parietal peritoneum receives sensory nerves from dorsal root ganglia and the visceral peritoneum from both spinal nerves and the vagus nerve.