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Estimate of size and total number of neurons in superior cervical ganglion of rat, capybara and horse

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Abstract

The superior (cranial) cervical ganglion was investigated by light microscopy in adult rats, capybaras (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris) and horses. The ganglia were vascularly perfused, embedded in resin and cut into semi-thin sections. An unbiased stereological procedure (disector method) was used to estimate ganglion neuron size, total number of ganglion neurons, neuronal density. The volume of the ganglion was 0.5 mm3 in rats, 226 mm3 in capybaras and 412 mm3 in horses. The total number of neurons per ganglion was 18,800, 1,520,000 and 3,390,000 and the number of neurons per cubic millimetre was 36,700, 7,000 and 8,250 in rats, capybaras and horses, respectively. The average neuronal size (area of the largest sectional profile of a neuron) was 358, 982and 800 µm2, and the percentage of volume occupied by neurons was 33, 21 and 17% in rats, capybaras and horses, respectively. When comparing the three species (average body weight: 200 g, 40 kg and 200 kg), most of the neuronal quantitative parameters change in line with the variation of body weight. However, the average neuronal size in the capybara deviates from this pattern in being larger than that of in the horse. The rat presented great interindividual variability in all the neuronal parameters. From the data in the literature and our new findings in the capybara and horse, we conclude that some correlations exist between average size of neurons and body size and between total number of neurons and body size. However, these correlations are only approximate and are based on averaged parameters for large populations of neurons: they are less likely to be valid if one considers a single quantitative parameter. Several quantitative features of the nervous tissue have to be taken into account together, rather than individually, when evolutionary trends related to size are considered.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Terry M. Mayhew (University of Nottingham, UK) for advice and help with the use of the physical disector. We thank Carla Siqueira de Figueiredo Barretto and Paulo Bezerra da Silva Neto from Profauna, Professor Maria Angélica Miglino (College of Veterinary Medicine/ University of São Paulo) and Professor Edna Freymüller from the Centre of Electron Microscopy (Federal University of São Paulo). A.A.C.M.R. wishes to thank his family for unfailing support and financial help: Josther, Sonia and Ana Paula. A.A.C.M.R. was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnólogico (CNPq; application no. 200516/01-9), Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK

    Antonio Augusto Coppi Maciel Ribeiro, Christine Davis & Giorgio Gabella

  2. Departamento de Cirurgia, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Dr. Orlando Marques de Paiva 87, São Paulo, Brazil

    Antonio Augusto Coppi Maciel Ribeiro

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  1. Antonio Augusto Coppi Maciel Ribeiro
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Correspondence to Antonio Augusto Coppi Maciel Ribeiro.

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Ribeiro, A.A.C.M., Davis, C. & Gabella, G. Estimate of size and total number of neurons in superior cervical ganglion of rat, capybara and horse. Anat Embryol 208, 367–380 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-004-0407-0

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