Distribution of fibers from nerve cell bodies in ventral roots of spinal nerves

Abstract

Distribution of the peripheral processes of nerve cell bodies located in ventral roots of spinal nerves was studied in the lumbar region of the cat. Following sectioning of the communicating rami attached to the 4th through the 7th lumbar spinal nerves, about half of the nerve cell bodies in the ventral roots of these nerves underwent chromatolysis which indicates that their nerve processes were distributed by pathways through the sectioned communicating rami. Other nerve cells studied were neither clearly normal nor undergoing degeneration; they were part way between the 2 extremes. Their processes could have been sectioned when the communicating rami were cut, but it is not certain. In another series of cats the ventral roots in the lumbar region were surgically cut near the spinal cord. Persisting myelinated nerve fibers in the ventral roots were probably from nerve cells present, which supports the assumption that these are afferent neurons with myelinated processes.