Sensory Innervation of the Hairs of the Rat Hindlimb: A Light Microscopic Analysis
November 1988
in “
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
”
Studysummary This study examined the sensory innervation of hair follicles in the furry skin of rat hindlimbs, finding significant differences among hair types in their innervation patterns and densities. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
The study investigated the sensory innervation of hair follicles in the rat hindlimb using the Winkelmann silver technique. It found that small vellus hairs, common above the ankle, were often not innervated, while those that were had lanceolate terminals and circumferential Ruffini complexes. Guard hairs, more frequently innervated, had 3-15 afferents forming palisades and circumferential terminals. Rare tylotrich hairs, found above the ankle, were densely innervated by many axons forming a bilaminar arrangement. Differences in hair type distribution, innervation density, and growth cycle phase across different hindlimb regions suggested significant implications for somatosensory processing of afferent input from hair brushing.
