Early Nerves in the Spine

What am I looking at?

This is a group of neurons isolated from the spinal ganglia of a developing rat. The nuclei of these neurons are shown in purple (1), and the axons are shown in green (2). To the left of the image, you can see a large group of dark purple nuclei (located in the cell bodies of these neurons) – this is the dorsal root ganglion (3). And in the center, you can see multiple smaller light purple groups of nuclei – these are groups of motor neurons (4).

Biology in the background

The dorsal root ganglion is a group of sensory neuron cell bodies just outside the spine. The dorsal root ganglion is involved in passing sensory signals to the central nervous system. The motor neurons surrounding the dorsal root ganglion seen here are involved in developing key signaling networks during development that would eventually allow a rat to move.

In rats, the cell bodies of neurons in the dorsal root ganglion can range in size from 10 micrometers across, or roughly eight times smaller than the width of a human hair, to 100 micrometers across, or slightly larger than the width of a human hair.

Technique  

This image was created using confocal microscopy.