Development and aging of noradrenergic cell bodies and axon terminals in the chicken

Tyrosine hydroxylase activity was measured in the region of locus coeruleus, cerebellum, cervical spinal cord, lumbar sympathetic ganglia, and iris throughout most of the life span of the chicken (8 days of incubation to 5 years) to compare developmental trends in tyrosine hydroxylase activity in noradrenergic cell bodies and in axon terminals in both the central and peripheral nervous system. Fluorescence histochemistry and retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase were used to characterize further the coeruleo-cerebellar projections. Tyrosine hydroxylase activity was detected in the cerebellum as early as 8 days of incubation, which is the earliest stage so far reported. The greatest increase in total tyrosine hydroxylase activity in the region of the locus coeruleus and cerebellum occurred during the embryonic period. There was a more pronounced increase in the cerebellum than in the locus coeruleus region. This is in contrast to the cervical spinal cord where tyrosine hydroxylase activity increased at approximately the same rate during the embryonic and post-hatching periods. Moreover, the cerebellum and cervical spinal cord, two locus coeruleus target sites, displayed different trends in tyrosine hydroxylase activity throughout development and aging. In both structures examined in the peripheral nervous system, the greatest increase in total tyrosine hydroxylase activity occurred during the post-hatching period, with a greater rise in the cell bodies of the lumbar sympathetic ganglia than in the noradrenergic terminals of the iris. In both the central and peripheral nervous system, total tyrosine hydroxylase activity continued to increase in noradrenergic terminals long after hatching reaching the highest levels at 7 months when the chicken is considered fully mature. During aging, 16 months to 5 years, there was a greater decrease in total tyrosine hydroxylase activity in the terminals of noradrenergic neurons than in the cell bodies in both the central and peripheral nervous system, a phenomenon that was more marked in the peripheral nervous system than in the brain.