Central nervous system neurons labeled following the injection of pseudorabies virus into the rat prostate gland

BACKGROUND. The human prostate gland plays an important role in male fertil ity and is involved in different functional pathologies of the male lower u rinary tract (LUT). The role of the prostate in these medical disorders is mainly unknown. Traditional surgical therapeutic attempts often fail to hel p these patients. For years, the clinical sciences have been stagnating due to a lack of basic science knowledge. Investigations into neuroanatomy and neurophysiology are urgently needed. Therefore, the neuroanatomy of the pr ostate gland in an experimental setup was explored. Recent progress in neur oscience methodology allows a transneuronal tracing by using a self-amplify ing virus tracer, pseudorabies virus (PRV). METHODS. Sixty-two individual adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used fur retrograde transneuronal mapping of the spinal cord and brain stem after PR V-injection and control experiments. A PRV-tracer (5 mu l, 1 x 10(8) pfu/ m l) was injected into the prostate gland. After a survival time of 72, 96, o r 120 hr, the animals were sacrificed. Brain and spinal cord were harvested via a dorsal laminectomy. After cutting on a freezing microtome, the tissu e was immunostained for PRV. RESULTS. PRV-positive cells were found within the sacral (S1-S2) and the th oracolumbar (T13-L2) spinal cord. At the supraspinal level, positive cells were found within the following regions: nucleus raphe, lateral reticular f ormation, nucleus gigantocellularis, A5 noradrenergic cell region, locus co eruleus, pontine micturition center, hypothalamus, medial preoptic region, and periaquaductal gray. CONCLUSIONS. This is the first investigation on the central innervation of the prostate gland showing a broad central representation of neurons involv ed in the control of the prostate gland. It is obvious, comparing data from the literature, that there is a broad overlap in the innervation of pelvic visceral organs (bladder, rectum, and urethra). The appreciation of these neuroanatomical circumstances allows a growing understanding of common urol ogical pathologies within the pelvis (pelvic pain, lower urinary tract, and bowel dysfunction). (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.