Volume 17, Number 23,
Issue of December 1, 1997
pp. 9340-9352
Differential Brainstem Fos-Like Immunoreactivity after
Laryngeal-Induced Coughing and Its Reduction by Codeine
Received May 27, 1997; revised Sept. 11, 1997; accepted Sept. 16, 1997.
Christian Gestreau,
Armand Louis Bianchi, and
Laurent Grélot
Département de Physiologie et Neurophysiologie, Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité de Recherche
Associée 1832, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques Saint
Jérôme, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France
We used the expression of the immediate-early gene c-fos, a marker
of neuronal activation, to localize brainstem neuronal populations
functionally related to fictive cough (FC). In decerebrate, paralyzed,
and ventilated cats, the level of Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) was
examined in five groups of animals: (1) controls, sham-operated unstimulated animals; (2) coughing cats, including both animals in
which FC was elicited by unilateral electrical stimulation of the
superior laryngeal nerve (SLN) and (3) those in which FC was elicited
by bilateral SLN stimulation; (4) stimulated-treated cats, in which
bilateral SLN stimulation was applied after selective blockade of FC by
codeine; and (5) codeine controls, sham-operated unstimulated cats
subjected to administration of codeine. Fifteen brainstem structures
were compared for numbers of labeled cells. Because codeine selectively
blocks FC, brainstem nuclei activated specifically during FC were
identified as regions showing increased FLI after FC and significant
reductions in FLI after FC suppression by codeine in
stimulated-treated cats. In coughing animals, we observed a selective
immunoreactivity in the interstitial and ventrolateral subdivisions of
the nucleus of the tractus solitarius, the medial part of the lateral
tegmental field, the internal division of the lateral reticular
nucleus, the nucleus retroambiguus, the para-ambigual region, the
retrofacial nucleus, and the medial parabrachial nucleus. FLI in all
these nuclei was significantly reduced in stimulated-treated cats. Our
results are consistent with the involvement of neurons overlapping the
main brainstem respiratory-related regions as well as the lateral
tegmental field and the lateral reticular nucleus in the neural
processing of laryngeal-induced FC.
Key words:
fictive cough;
laryngeal afferents;
antitussive drug;
Fos-like immunocytochemistry;
brainstem mapping;
cat