Proiezioni medullo-ponto-mesencefaliche dirette al midollo spinale lombo-sacrale nel bovino sano ed affetto da paresi spastica: indagine comparativa.

The cross sectional area of medullary, pontine, and mesencephalic neurons supplying the lumbo-sacral spinal cord in spastic paresis affected cattle was investigated and compared with data obtained from healthy subjects using the fluorescent retrograde tracer technique. Fast Blue was injected at L6-S1 spinal cord levels in three affected calves. After 4 weeks the animals were sacrificed. The cross sectional area of the FB labelled neurons of the red nucleus (RN), lateral vestibular nucleus (LVN), and reticular formation (RF) was measured. The results showed that neurons of medullary RF and RN were significantly smaller in affected subjects. It let us to suppose that in paretic cattle a subpopulation of large neurons lack.