Summary
A multiple layered flat epithelial cell layer covering the sympathetic ganglion chain and its derivatives (e.g. the splanchnic nerves) has been described. This layer is continuous around the grey and white rami communicans and is in turn continuous with the perineural epithelium of peripheral nerves. A capillary plexus and mast cells in this layer have also been demonstrated. This epithelium is shown on the surface of the blood vessel which enters the sympathetic trunk and resembles the leptomeningeal covering of the blood vessels of the central nervous system. The epi- and perineural. and epi- and periganglionic connective tissue layers of the sympathetic system are extremely delicate and minimal in quantity when compared to the epi- and perineurium of peripheral nerves. This paper thus completes the evidence that the whole of the peripheral nervous system and its ganglia (voluntary and autonomic) is isolated from the environment in which it lies and is maintained in an environment similar to or identical with that of the central nervous system.
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Supported by grant B-1914 of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness and by funds from Anatomy Training Grant 5T1-GM-305, National Institutes of Health, Division of General Medical Sciences.
Acknowledgement. We wish to thank Dr. Robert Mathewson, Resident Director, Lerner Marine Biological Laboratories of the American Museum of Natural History, Bimini, Bahamas, for providing facilities for collection of whale material.
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Shanthaveerappa, T.R., Bourne, G.H. The perineural epithelium of sympathetic nerves and ganglia and its relation to the pia arachnoid of the central nervous system and perineural epithelium of the peripheral nervous system. Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 61, 742–753 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00342622
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00342622