Descending course of primary afferent collaterals in the cat's spinal cord

After injecting horseradish-peroxidase into the lower thoracic, lumbar and sacral spinal cord segments of cats, labelled perikarya were found in several spinal ganglia localized cranially to the site of injection. The segmental distance between the injection site and the rostralmost localized ganglion with labelled cells varied depending on the medio-lateral localization of the injection. The longest distance (10 segments) was achieved by medial injections. Primary sensory neurones with long descending collaterals belong to large ganglion cells.