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Primary Sensory Neuron Addition In The Adult Rat Trigeminal Ganglion: Evidence For Neural Crest Glio-Neuronal Precursor Maturation, Alfonso Lagares, Hong-Yun Li, Xin-Fu Zhou, Carlos Avendano

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

It is debated whether primary sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia increase the number in adult animals and, if so, whether the increase is attributable to postnatal neurogenesis or maturation of dormant, postmitotic precursors. Similar studies are lacking in the trigeminal ganglion (TG). Here we demonstrate by stereological methods that the number of neurons in the TG of adult male rats nearly doubles between the third and eighth months of age. The increase is mainly attributable to the addition of small, B-type neurons, with a smaller contribution of large, A-neurons. We looked for possible proliferative or maturation mechanisms that …