Axon collaterals of mossy fibers from the pontine nucleus in the cerebellar dentate nucleus.
1. Single axons of pontine nucleus neurons (PN axons) receiving cerebral input were stained intra-axonally with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in the cerebellum of cats. The axonal trajectory of single PN axons was reconstructed from serial sections of the cerebellum and the brain stem. 2. Axons were penetrated in the white matter near the dentate nucleus, and, after electrophysiological identification, PN axons were injected iontophoretically with HRP. The identification criteria for the PN axons were 1) their direct responses to stimulation of the contralateral pontine nucleus (PN), 2) their synaptic activation from the contralateral cerebral cortex, and 3) the decrease in threshold for evoking direct spikes in stimulation of the PN by conditioning stimuli applied in the cerebral cortex. 3. Two hundred thirty-three axons were electrophysiologically identified as PN axons receiving the input from the cerebral cortex. Ninety-six of them were stained successfully with HRP, and reconstructions were made from 40 well-stained PN axons. All of them gave rise to mossy fibers and terminated in the granular layer of the cerebellar cortex as typical mossy fiber rosettes. Out of these, 22 gave axon collaterals to the dentate nucleus. Virtually all of the axon branches observed in the dentate nucleus were axon collaterals of mossy fibers from the PN to the cerebellar cortex. In 7 of these 22 PN axons, cell bodies were retrogradely labeled with HRP, and all of them were found in the contralateral PN. 4. The stained-stem axons arising from the PN ran medially in the pons, crossed the midline, and then ascended dorsocaudally in the branchium pontis. After passing in the white matter anterior to or lateral to the dentate nucleus, they entered into the cerebellar cortex. On their way, one to three axon collaterals were given off from parent axons to the dentate nucleus. The diameter of these collaterals was very thin (mean, 0.6 microns), compared with the large diameter of the parent axons (mean, 2.1 microns). 5. Some axon collaterals were very simple and had only one terminal branch with or without short branchlets, whereas others were more complex, and single axon collaterals ramified before forming a terminal arborization. Axon collaterals of single PN axons mainly spread mediolaterally or dorsoventrally in the frontal plane but had a very narrow rostrocaudal extension. 6. Terminal branches usually bore swellings en passant along their length and one terminal swelling at their end. The number of swellings per axon collateral ranged 23-180 (116 +/- 52, mean +/- SD).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)