Ultrastructural features of the ventromedial region of the laminar nucleus in the red-eared turtle (Chrysemys scripta elegans).

Abstract

The nuclei of the torus semicircularis, in particular the laminar nucleus, have been functionally implicated in sound localization, vocalization, and mating behavior. In the red-eared turtle the ventromedial region of the laminar nucleus (containing two discrete dense cellular areas and the surrounding neuropil) was examined electron microscopically in the present study. Neuronal cell bodies in the two cellular areas were different in size, shape, cytoplasmic constituents, and their relationship to each other. Cell bodies in the layer beneath the ependymal surface were almost always surrounded by lamellae while cell bodies in the layer above the central nucleus were in close apposition. We are speculating that cell bodies in the superficial layer may be neuroendocrine in nature. This speculation is based on the presence of lipidlike droplets within cell bodies, and previous findings indicating steroid binding and synthesis in this region in reptilian brains. Cell bodies located above the central nucleus were characteristic in that they contained lamellar bodies and extensive well-developed Golgi regions. Closely apposed groups of these cell bodies were frequently surrounded by or in close apposition to large axonal profiles. These profiles were filled with clear core vesicles, numerous mitochondria, and clusters of small dense core particles. Synaptic contacts between large axonal profiles and cell bodies were not observed. The neuropil surrounding cell bodies of the inner layer of this region of the laminar nucleus contained glomeruli composed of a central axon surrounded, and in synaptic contact, with dendrites. Throughout the area of the laminar nucleus studied, synapses appeared to be primarily of the asymmetrical type.