Increase of dopamine beta-hydroxylase immunoreactivity in non-noradrenergic nerves of rat cerebral arteries following long-term sympathectomy

The expression of dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity (IR) after short-term (2 days) and long-term (3 weeks) sympathectomy was investigated in rat cerebral vessels, dura mater and pterygopalatine ganglion neurones (which are known to project to cerebral arteries) by immunohistochemistry at both the light and electron microscopical levels. TH-IR, like glyoxylic acid-induced fluorescence, was completely abolished by sympathectomy. By contrast, DBH-IR was localized in nerve fibres, lacking 5-hydroxydopamine (5-OHDA)-labelled vesicles, along cerebral vessels of long-term sympathectomized rats, but not in the dura mater, and in pterygopalatine ganglia, where the number of DBH-IR neurons increased from 27.87% to 54.11%. Since virtually all the pterygopalatine neurons displayed choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-IR, both in control and sympathectomized rats, it is concluded that long-term sympathectomy caused an increase of the expression of DBH-IR in cholinergic neurones of the pterygopalatine ganglion, without these neurons producing or storing noradrenaline.