Morphological study of myelinated and unmyelinated fibres in the sacrococcygeal dorsal roots of the rat

Background: The number and calibre of myelinated and unmyelinated fibres of the sacrococcygeal dorsal roots innervating the tail of rats were studied by means of light and electron microscopy. Materials and methods: There were an estimated total of 12,500 myelinated and 25,500 unmyelinated dorsal root fibres innervating the tail of a rat. Results: The results showed that from the second sacral (S2) to the fourth sacral (S4) segment, the fibre diameter spectrum of myelinated fibres within each dorsal root was bimodal with two peaks at 5 microns and 10 microns, respectively. The first sacral (S1) segment was composed of numerous smaller-size myelinated fibres, thus forming a right-skewed distribution. The coccygeal (Co) segments showed a unimodal distribution peaking at 10 microns for the first (Co1) segment and gradually shifting to 7 microns for the third (Co3) segment. Overall, there was a continuous relative increase of the larger vs. the smaller myelinated fibres from the sacral to coccygeal segments. The fibre diameter of unmyelinated fibres of all these roots was unimodal with a single peak at 0.5 microns. The ratio of unmyelinated to myelinated fibre numbers was on average 2.83 for the S1-S2 roots, 1.66 for the S3-S4 roots, and 1.24 for the coccygeal roots. Conclusions: The comparison of the left- and right-side nerve fibres show that there was no significant difference, thus implying a symmetrical sensory innervation of the rat's tail.