The neurosecretory hypothalamo-hindbrain pathway and its possible significance for the regulation of blood pressure and the milk-ejection reflex

1. In lactating rats and in rats deprived of water, the amount of neurosecretory material in the fibres of the neurosecretory hypothalamohindbrain pathway exceeds that in untreated control animals. Under these experimental conditions the pathway and its target regions can be well analysed by means of fluorescence and electron microscopic methods. 2. The axons belonging to the hypothalamo-hindbrain pathway originate from perikarya located in the caudal portion of the nucleus paraventricularis and also from a small group of perikarya in the caudo-lateral hypothalamus. On the way to the hindbrain the neurosecretory fibres join other fibre bundles of the mid- and hindbrain. 3. In the hindbrain most of the neurosecretory fibres terminate in the area of the nucleus tractus solitarii and in the area of the dorsal column nuclei. The axon terminals form synapses with other neurones. 4. Using cytochemical methods at the ultrastructural level (Naumann and Sterba, 1976), the authors were able to prove that the vesicles in the exohypothalamic fibres and in their synaptic terminals contain the same sort of material as the neurophysin vesicles in the posterior lobe of the hypophysis. 5. The most distinct increase in neurophysin was observed in lactating females which were separated from their sucklings after a normal lactation period of 15 days and killed four days thereafter, and in rats deprived of water for different time periods. 6. The relationship of the neurosecretory hypothalamo-hindbrain pathway to the nucleus tractus solitarii and to the dorsal column nuclei suggests that, functionally, there may be a correlation between the system of blood-pressure control and the milk ejection reflex.