ABSTRACT
Objective In order to explore whether neurons in the cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat were equipped with the condition for the role of progesterone .Methods Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expression of progesteron receptor ( PR) in cervicothoracic ganglion of female goats .Results The result indicated that PR-immunoreactive-products were mainly present in the cell bodies of neurons , and satellite cells , Schwann cells , neurapophysis and nerve fiber also had weaker staining .The cell membrane and cytoplasm of neurons represented brown as strong positive ,but the nucleus of neurons showed the presence of heterogeneity , 85.10% neurons ’ nucleus was strong positive,of which 31.91%nucleolus being clear vacuoles were negative;14.90%nucleus displaying vacuolization had no shaining, of which 7.45%nucleolus was strong positive .There were weak positive and flaxen PR-immunoreactive-products in satellite cells, Schwann cells, neurapophysis and nerve fiber .Image analysis shows that PR of neurons was extremely significant compared with other non-nerve cells ( P <0.01 ) . Conclusion The result proved that the sympathetic postganglionic neurons in cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat were the one of main target cells of progesterone ,suggesting that progesterone may be involving in the neuroregulation of cardiac functional activities through affectinng the activities of neurons in the cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat ,and PR in the cervicothoracic ganglion may act as a network node to coordinate endocrine regulation of progesterone and neuroregulation of autonomic nerve on the cardiac functional activities .