Adrenergic innervation of the rat nucleus locus coeruleus arises predominantly from the C1 adrenergic cell group in the rostral medulla.
Focal iontophoretic injections of the retrograde tracer Fluoro-Gold into the locus coeruleus were combined with immunocytochemistry for phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase, the final enzyme in the synthesis of epinephrine. Retrograde labeling confirmed recent findings that the major afferents to the locus coeruleus are present in the ventrolateral (nucleus paragigantocellularis) and dorsomedial medulla (nucleus prepositus hypoglossi), areas containing the C1 and C3 adrenergic cell groups, respectively. The Fluoro-Gold label revealed morphologic details of locus coeruleus afferent cells. Labeled neurons in the prepositus hypoglossi region were typically round (10 microns diameter) or ellipsoidal and compressed against the ventricle wall (10 x 20 microns), while those in the paragigantocellularis were most often multipolar and ellipsoidal or triangular in shape (10 x 20-20 x 30 microns). Double labeling in the same tissue sections revealed that locus coeruleus afferent neurons are intercalated among phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase-positive C1 and C3 neurons. Twenty-one per cent of locus coeruleus afferent neurons in paragigantocellularis stained for phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase while only 4% of locus coeruleus afferents in the prepositus hypoglossi area exhibited phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase immunoreactivity. In paragigantocellularis, doubly labeled neurons were usually the smaller locus coeruleus afferents, while in the prepositus hypoglossi phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase labeling was found in all cell types that project to the locus coeruleus. Phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase-positive fibers from the C1 and C3 cell groups form an adrenergic fiber bundle in the dorsomedial medulla; in the pons, these fibers appear to exit this bundle and innervate the locus coeruleus. Fibers from the neurons of the C3 cell group also appear to ascend on the dorsal surface of the medulla to innervate the locus coeruleus. The phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase fiber innervation in the locus coeruleus was dense and highly varicose. Phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase innervation in the dorsal pons was not restricted to the locus coeruleus but was also prominent in neighboring areas such as Barrington's nucleus and the lateral dorsal tegmental nucleus of Gudden.