Neuronal-vascular relationships in the raphe nuclei, locus coeruleus, and substantia nigra in primates

A fluorescence histochemical and electron microscopic study of the monoaminergic cell groups in the squirrel monkey and Rhesus monkey brains has revealed the direct apposition of blood vessels to perikarya and dendrites of monoaminergic neurons. Capillaries and small arterioles or venules, ranging from 8-50 microns in diameter, showed perikarya and dendrites abutting the basement membrane without evidence of glial interposition. This neuronal-vascular relationship was present in 20% to 30% of the small vessels in the serotonergic nuclei raphe dorsalis and centralis superior and in the noradrenergic locus coeruleus. Such contacts were clearly present but observed less frequently in the dopaminergic substantia nigra pars compacta and in the serotonergic nuclei raphe obscurus, pallidus, magnus, and pontis. We postulate that monoamine-containing neurons apposed to blood vessels in certain regions of the brain may be influenced directly by hormones or other substances in blood.