Alterations in mystacial pad innervation in the aged rat

It is well established that sensory perception becomes impaired with advancing age and that, in parallel, dystrophy and degeneration of axons occur in sensory pathways. In this study, the impact of aging was examined in the mystacial pad, which receives a large variety of sensory nerve endings organized in a highly predictable pattern. Mystacial pad specimens from aged (30 months old) and young adult (2-3 months old) female Sprague-Dawley rats were processed, in parallel, for immunohistochemical analyses with antibodies against human neuronal cytoplasmic protein (protein gene product 9.5), transmitter enzymes, and several neuropeptides. Several changes in cutaneous innervation including both degenerative and regenerative processes were evident in the aged rat: (1) the Merkel endings and lanceolate endings that emanate from large-caliber afferents in the whisker follicles were reduced and showed signs of degeneration. Furthermore, a reduction of piloneural complexes at the intervibrissal hairs were evident, but only in aged rats that showed more severe behavioral sensorimotor disturbances. In contrast, Ruffini endings as well as mechanoreceptors emanating from medium-caliber axons, i.e., transverse lanceolate and reticular endings, appeared normal. (2) A reduction was evident among two sets of unmyelinated epidermal endings; however, the epidermal innervation affiliated with the intervibrissal hairs appeared normal in the aged rat. (3) A loss of sympathetic neuropeptide tyrosine (NPY) or tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive (IR) and somatosensory Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-IR perivascular axons was paralleled by an increase in presumed parasympathetic NPY/CGRP-IR axons. (4) Two "novel" networks of fine-caliber axons were observed in the outer and inner root sheaths of the whisker follicles in the aged rat. (5) NPY was present in a population of small-caliber, somatosensory CGRP-IR axons in the aged rat. This may represent a de novo synthesis, since, normally, NPY-like immunoreactivity is not observed in this set of axons. Our results suggest that the sensory impairments occurring with advancing age are part of a peripheral process instigated by changes in nerve-target interactions and/or incapacitation of the neuronal machinery to sustain the axonal integrity.