Double labelling immunohistochemistry on the nerve fibres of retractor clitoridis muscle of the sow

Abstract

The study of the innervation of the female genital organs, carried out by combining retrograde neuronal tracing and immunofluorescence methods, allowed identification of the site and the neurochemical content of the neurons connected to them in the rat (Papka et al., 1991, 1995a,b, 1996, 1997, 1999a,b; Serghini et al., 1997; Houdeau et al., 1995, 1997, 1998), the guinea-pig (Alm and Lundberg, 1988), the cat (Kawatani and de Groat, 1991), the dog (Li and Masuko, 2001) and the sow (Majewski and Heym, 1991; Majewski et al., 1996; Czaja, 2000; Czaja et al., 2001). In swine, our research (Panu et al., 2001; Bo Minelli et al., 2002) contributed to the study of the innervation of the sole smooth genital musculature, taking the retractor clitoridis muscle (RCM) as an experimental model. This muscle, in fact, reacts to hormonal stimuli in a similar way to the uterine smooth musculature (Basset, 1961). The aim of the present research was to define the neurochemical content and the distribution area of the nerve fibres of the sow RCM