Distribution of dopaminergic cell bodies in the median raphe nucleus of the rat brain

An increasing amount of data suggests that a dysfunction in dopamine (DA) neurotransmission is involved in the pathophysiology of various neurological and psychiatric disorders. With this in mind, the distribution and connectivity of the dopaminergic system in the rat brain has been studied extensively. So far, little is known about the distribution of DA containing neurons in the median raphe nucleus (MnR). This nucleus is mainly defined by a large population of serotonin containing neurons. Using quantitative immunohistochemistry, we observed the presence of a small number of DA containing neurons in the rat MnR, which was in contrast to a previous report.