Superficial dorsal horn of the adult human spinal cord

Golgi studies in the adult human spinal cord reveal 10 cell types in the first three laminae. Five are Golgi Type II or ipsilateral proprioneurons of short or long range--the latter including Waldeyer cells. Several of the cells in this group have dendrites that help to form interlaminar boundaries on the gray-white boundary. Two of the four cell types in Lamina II have dendritic fields that correspond exactly to the primary afferent terminal axonal fields described in the cat by Rethelyi (1977). Three cell types, one in each lamina, can be tentatively homologized with monkey spinothalamic cells described by other authors. Our previously described classification method based on dendritic patterns suggests that the Golgi Type II interneurons and ipsilateral proprioneurons belong to two different cell families (and Waldeyer cells to a third), whereas the putative spinothalamic neurons are all different cell types.