Abstract:

 In order to explore the relationship of regulatory pathways between progesterone’s endocrine regulation and autonomic nerve’s neuroregulation on gastrointestinal function, the distribution of progesterone receptor (PR) in celiac superior mesenteric ganglion of female goat was detected by immunohistochemical SP method. The results showed that PR immunoreactive products distributed widely in the celiac superior mesenteric ganglion of female goat, and mainly in nerve cells. The cell membrane of neurons was brown as strong positive, and cytoplasm was strong or moderate positive. 43.40% neurons’ karyoplasm was tawny, but the nucleolus was clear vacuoles; 56.60% neurons’ karyoplasm had no staining, but nucleolus was moderate positive. Image analysis showed that PR in the nerve cells was extremely significant compared with other non-nerve cells (P＜0.01). The result proved that the neurons in celiac superior mesenteric ganglion were the main target cells of progesterone, and PR in celiac superior mesenteric ganglion might be the network node to coordinate the endocrine regulation of progesterone and neuroregulation of autonomic nerve on gastrointestinal function.