Nerve fibers innervating the cranial and spinal meninges: Morphology of nerve fiber terminals and their structural integration

Abstract

Pachymeninx and leptomeninx of cranial cavity and spine are considerably different in their collagenous fiber texture, cellular composition, vascularization, and innervation. The majority of meningeal nerve fibers terminate as free nerve endings whereas encapsulated and lamellated nerve terminals additionally occur in higher vertebrates including man. With respect to nerve fiber classification, arborization pattern, topography, and organization of the microenvironment at the termination site afferent and efferent nerve terminals are differentiated. Only the dura mater and the pial subcompartment of the leptomeninx possess the morphological prerequisites for neurogenic inflammation. In the current review, the results of morphological studies regarding the meningeal innervation including the sites of CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) production and absorption are discussed with emphasis on their structure-function relationships.

Developmental changes in human dural innervation

“…Penfield [20], confirming and extending previous studies, showed that the trigeminal nerve is responsible for supplying the supratentorial dura in man, an observation since confirmed in animal models [1,9,2]. The trigeminal is the largest cranial nerve.…”

“…The dura also contains the venous sinuses responsible for conveying the venous outflow of the brain and has an important role in controlling this venous outflow; the innervation of the human dura is most abundant around these blood vessels and sinuses [1,9].…”

Effects of Voluntary Locomotion and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide on the Dynamics of Single Dural Vessels in Awake Mice

“…1A) in awake mice on a spherical treadmill during voluntary locomotion (Gao and Drew, 2014;Huo et al, , 2015aGao et al, 2015) and in response to intravenous injections of CGRP and/or sumatriptan. Although both dural vessels and pial veins drain into the sagittal sinus (Castelli and Huelke, 1965;Kerber and Newton, 1973;Fricke et al, 2001), our windows were more laterally located, such that dural vessels were clearly distinguishable from pial vessels by their superficial position relative to cerebral arteries and veins ( Fig. 1) and the lack of interconnections between the dural vasculature and cortical blood vessels.…”

“…The vasculature of the dura mater was primarily composed of arteries, which formed a network of parallel vessels ( Fig. 4C; Castelli and Huelke, 1965;Kerber and Newton, 1973;Fricke et al, 2001). Dural veins were less common than dural arteries but were present (Fig.…”

“…There are three major arterial supplies to the dura mater: (1) the anterior meningeal artery; (2) the middle meningeal artery; and (3) the posterior meningeal artery (Castelli and Huelke, 1965). They anastomose with each other, giving rise to a rich layer of arteries on the periosteal surface of the dura (Fricke et al, 2001). Some arteries penetrate into the inner layer of the dura to form a rich capillary network (Kerber and Newton, 1973).…”