RESUMO
PURPOSE: The present study was designed to examine the distribution of dorsal root ganglion(DRG) cells innervating the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments of the Sprague-Dawley rat knee joint. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fluoro-gold(FG) was used to identify the distribution of DRG cells innervating the ligaments, and horseradish peroxidase(HRP) was used to measure the DRG cell size innervating the ligaments. RESULTS: Neural tracers-labelled DRG cells were found ipsilaterally only in the lumbosacra1 DRGs. FG-labelled DRG cells innervating the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments were found from the 1st lumbar DRG to the 1st sacral DOR(L1-Sl). The majority of FG-labelled DRG cells innervating the poste-rior cruciate ligaments were located in the L4, and the majority innervating the anterior cruciate ligaments were found in the L3, The size of HRP-labelled DRG cells innervating the cruciate ligaments was below 800 micromiter (c), showing that these cells were small. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that the DRG origin of sensory nerves is different in each cruciate ligament of the knee joint. But the size and the type innervating each ligament is similar.