Phrenic motoneurons receive monosynaptic inputs from the Kölliker-Fuse nucleus: a light- and electron-microscopic study in the rat.

The parabrachial complex, which plays an important role in respiratory regulation, has been reported to send projection fibers to the phrenic nucleus, but the synaptic organization between the parabrachial fibers and the phrenic motoneurons has not been examined. Using anterograde and retrograde tracing methods, we found in the rat that the parabrachial fibers originating mainly from the Kölliker-Fuse nucleus (KF) terminated not only within the phrenic nucleus but also on the radial dendritic bundles of the phrenic motoneurons. It was further revealed that the KF fibers made asymmetrical synapses predominantly with dendrites and partly with somata of the phrenic motoneurons. These data suggest that output signals from the KF may exert excitatory influence directly upon the phrenic motoneurons.