Adrenergic Innervation of the Parasympathetic Ciliary Ganglion in the Chick

Abstract

The chick ciliary ganglion receives a nonvascular symathetic innervation in addition to the well-known cholinergic one; fluorescent, varicose adrenergic fibers form pericelluar baskets. Adrenergic fibes were identified electron microscopically in ganglia fixed with potassium permanganate. The fibers degenerate after injection of 6-hydroxydopamine. No true synaptic relationships involving adrenergic varicosities and ganglion cells or cholinergic terminals were demonstrable. The distribution of the adrenergic fibers suggests a kind of "distance à synapse" with the choroidal cells or with the preganglionic fibers (or both). The adrenergic innervation might provide a modulation of the cholinergic transmission.