A Histological Examination of the Ovarian Ganglia and Prehypogastric Ganglion of the Aortic Plexus in Females

Abstract

The aortic plexus is a symmetrically organized network of sympathetic nerves positioned along the infrarenal abdominal aorta. Recently, we characterized the aortic plexus and its ganglia (inferior mesenteric, left/right spermatic, and prehypogastric ganglion) in males; however, the literature minimally describes its anatomy in females. In the present study, we conducted the first histological examination of the left/right ovarian ganglia, and investigated whether females, like males, exhibit a prehypogastric ganglion. The ganglia were dissected from embalmed (n=4) and fresh (n=1) human cadavers, and H&E staining confirmed that all ganglia contained neuronal cell bodies. Comparable to the topographic arrangement in males, our preliminary results show that the left/right ovarian ganglia are positioned in close relation to their respective ovarian artery, whereas the prehypogastric ganglion was positioned within the right cord of the aortic plexus, inferior to the right ovarian ganglion in all specimens. Moreover, using immunohistochemistry, we found that all three constituent ganglia from the fresh cadaver stained positively for tyrosine hydroxylase, thereby confirming their sympathetic nature. Having provided the first topographical and histological characterization of the ovarian and prehypogastric ganglia in females, our future studies will seek to determine their specific function.