Anatomy and innervation of the anterior aorta of Aplysia and the ultrastructure of specialized neuromuscular junctions on vascular smooth muscle

Abstract

The fine structure of the cellular layers and innervation of smooth muscle in the anterior aorta of Aplysia were examined. The inner layer of circular muscle is not innervated but its fibers may be electrically coupled. In contrast, longitudinal fibers in the outer layer are well separated and richly innervated by highly specialized neuromuscular junctions (NMJ). Three distinct types of NMJ are present on this smooth muscle, each identifiable by a set of quantitatively described morphological features including size, degree of contact with sarcolemma, density of active zones, number of mitochondria and vesicular content. The three types of NMJ are likely to arise from the identified serotonergic (RD_AAE), cholinergic (RD_AAI), and glycinergic (R14) neurons that provide the major known excitatory, inhibitory, and modulatory inputs to this vessel. Each longitudinal muscle fiber is separately innervated by one or more NMJ of each type. Since there are no intercellular junctions between longitudinal fibers, coordination of contractility is clearly a function of the pattern of neural activity. This report further characterizes the rapid and fine control of the vasculature in Aplysia and demonstrates the utility of this preparation for cellular‐level studies on the neural control of smooth muscle and neurochemical messengers mediating its activity.