Key result
Claims of direct vagal innervation of sub-diaphragmatic organs contradict prior literature and require rigorous re-evaluation.
Why the study?
Recent reports claimed direct innervation of sub-diaphragmatic organs by vagal dorsal motor nucleus neurons without intercalated postganglionic neurons, challenging the canonical two-neuron pathway.
Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Design
Minireview
Challenges recent claims of direct subdiaphragmatic vagal innervation; leaves open the need for rigorous validation before revising autonomic models.
The canonical autonomic nervous system pathway to peripheral targets consists of two neurons in series, i.e., preganglionic and postganglionic. However, several recent reports claim a direct innervation of some sub-diaphragmatic organs by neurons of the vagal dorsal motor nucleus without intercalated postganglionic neurons. The aim of this minireview is to summarize these studies e.g. on direct vagal preganglionic innervation of Brunner's glands, liver and spleen and to critically discuss their unorthodox findings and discrepancies with previous literature. We conclude that rigorous re-evaluation by complementary state-of-the-art strategies is obligatory.
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Berthoud et al. (2025) reported a review. Recent reports claiming direct vagal preganglionic innervation of sub-diaphragmatic organs contradict previous literature and require rigorous re-evaluation by complementary state-of-the-art strategies.
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