Nerve Ganglia

Ganglia are nodular masses of neuronal cell bodies (ganglion cells), together with their suporting neuroglia (capsule cells)

There are two types of ganglia in the PNS:

• sensory ganglia: - cell bodies of sensory neurons
• autonomic ganglia: cell bodies of efferent neurons from the autonomic nervous system.

Now look at the images on the left, sections of a dorsal root ganglion stained with Masson's trichrome.

Make sure you can identify the fascicles of nerve fibres leading to and/or from the ganglion and the large perikarya of the pseudounipolar neurons.

Why do you think many of the perikarya are large?