The innervation of the myometrium of the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis). A quantitative electron-microscopic study.

The autonomic innervation of the myometrium of Macaca fascicularis consists of bundles of unmyelinated nerve fibres running between the smooth muscle cells, and is therefore considered to be of the "fascicular (= unitary) type". Close contacts between nerve fibres and smooth muscle fibres were not found. Modification of the chromaffin method according to Tranzer and Richards made it possible to visualize the heterogeneity of the nerve fibres in a single bundle. The following fibre types were found to coexist: (1) noradrenergic fibres containing "synaptic" vesicles with a dense granule, (2) cholinergic fibres containing empty "synaptic vesicles", and (3) non-adrenergic non-cholinergic (NANC) fibres containing only or predominantly large dense-cored vesicles, which do not react with this method. Noradrenergic fibres are the most numerous (around 60%), followed by NANC fibres (30%) and cholinergic elements (around 10%). The distribution of these three types is similar in the cervix, the isthmus and the body of the uterus in pregnant and non-pregnant females.

[A new promotor of nerve growth: naftidrofuryl]. / Un nouveau promoteur de croissance nerveuse: le naftidrofuryl.

20 day-old rat thoracic dorsal root ganglia were grown for 48 hrs. in Iscove's medium supplemented with 8% fetal calf serum and 600 mg/100 ml glucose. Naftidrofuryl was added at 10(-6), 10(-7), 10(-8) and 10(-9) M concentrations to the culture medium. The 10(-7) and 10(-8) M concentrations induced a statistically significant increase of the number (30 to 40%; p = .0054 and .0016, respectively) and length (20 to 30%; p = .0012 and .001, respectively) of neurites of the outgrowth measured after Bodian's protargol impregnation. The width of the cell spread in the outgrowth was also enlarged at the 10(-7) and 10(-8) M concentrations (18 to 26%; p = .0012; p less than .0001, respectively).

A comparison of uterine motility in the pregnant and non-pregnant cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) and pregnant woman: a manometric and electromyographic study.

The use of a combination of manometric and electromyographic methods provided a reliable technique for evaluating variations in uterine activity in conscious macaque monkeys and women. The technique was particularly useful for obtaining data on the influence of steroid hormones. During the spontaneous menstrual cycle of the macaque, uterine motility, after being weak and poorly synchronized during the follicular phase, became still weaker with impaired synchronization during the luteal phase and then much stronger and well-synchronized at the time of menstruation. There was no evidence in vivo of any relationship between the existence of gap junctions in the myometrium of non-pregnant animals and the various patterns of uterine motility. During the last third of pregnancy in macaques, the initiation of electrical activity in various uterine areas was always synchronous with and related to mechanical contraction. The same results were obtained in preparturient women. Thus, improved uterine coordination does not appear to be the mechanism by which the uterine contractile strength increases to expulse the foetus at the end of pregnancy. Apart from the particular situation of non-pregnant animals under progestative influence, in which activity was constantly non-propagated, we could not find any evidence of a general pattern which would indicate only one site for the initiation of activity and its extension to the whole uterus.