Connexin36 in gap junctions forming electrical synapses between motoneurons in sexually dimorphic motor nuclei in spinal cord of rat and mouse.

ABSTRACT: Pools of motoneurons in the lumbar spinal cord innervate the sexually dimorphic perineal musculature, and are themselves sexually dimorphic, showing differences in number and size between male and female rodents. In two of these pools, the dorsomedial nucleus (DMN) and the dorsolateral nucleus (DLN), dimorphic motoneurons are intermixed with non-dimorphic neurons innervating anal and external urethral sphincter muscles. As motoneurons in these nuclei are reportedly linked by gap junctions, we examined immunofluorescence labeling for the gap junction-forming protein connexin36 (Cx36) in male and female mice and rats. Fluorescent Cx36-labeled puncta occurred in distinctly greater amounts in the DMN and DLN of male rodents than in other spinal cord regions. These puncta were localized to moto

SUBMITTER: Bautista W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3943632 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature