[NADPH-diaphorase-positive neurons in the sympathetic ganglia during postnatal ontogenesis]

Localization and the morphometric characteristics of NADPH-diaphorase--(NADPH-d)-positive neurons were studied in the superior cervical ganglion (SCG), stellate ganglion (SG) and the celiac ganglia (CG) in newborn, 10-, 20-, 30-, 60 and 180-day-old rats, mice and cats. No NADPH-d-positive neurons were found in rats and mice of all the age groups studied. In cats, the largest proportion of NADPH-d-positive neurons was found in the SG, the smaller one--in the SCG, while only the individual neurons we detected in the CG, irrespective of the animal age. In the SG, the proportion of NADPH-d-positive neurons increased during the first 20 days of life and then decreased after 30 days till the end of the second month. The content of NADPH-d-positive neurons in the CG and SCG d-remained unchanged during the development. There were no significant differences in the cross-sectional area between the neurons located in the different ganglia of animals from the same age group. It is concluded that the age development of NADPH-d-positive neurons in different sympathetic ganglia occured heterochronously was finished by the end of the second month of life.