Magnocellular neurosecretory cell

Magnocellular neurosecretory cells are large neurons in the supraoptic nucleus and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Some are also found in smaller numbers in accessory cell groups between these two nuclei, the largest one being the nucleus circularis. There are two types of magnocellular neurosecretory cells, oxytocin-producing cells and vasopressin-producing cells, but a few can produce both hormones. These cells are neuroendocrineneurons, they are electrically excitable, and generate action potentials in response to afferent stimulation.

In the rat, where these neurons have been most extensively studied, about 19,000 magnocellular neurosecretory cells project to the posterior pituitary gland, half of which contain vasopressin and half oxytocin. Each supraoptic nucleus contains about 2,000 vasopressin magnocellular neurons and about 1,000 magnocellular oxytocin neurons; the paraventricular nucleus has more (magnocellular) oxytocin neurons than vasopressin neurons, but in fact more magnocellular neurons are dispersed as isolated cells or small groups throughout the anterior hypothalamus than are contained within the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei together.

Each magnocellular neuron has a single long varicose axon which projects to the posterior pituitary with few if any collateral branches; each axon gives rise to about 2,000 neurosecretory terminals and about 400 large axon swellings that store large numbers of hormone-containing vesicles. Each nerve terminal contains about 250 vesicles, and each swelling about 2,200 vesicles. The vesicles, each of which contains about 85,000 molecules of oxytocin or vasopressin, are released from the axon swellings and nerve terminals by exocytosis in response to calcium entry through voltage-gated channels, that occurs when action potentials are propagated down the axons.

The cells typically have two or three long dendrites, which also contain large dilations, and which also contain a very high density of hormone-containing vesicles - each vasopressin-containing dendrite contains about 11,000 vesicles. Oxytocin and vasopressin can thus be released within the brain from these dendrites, as well as into the blood from the terminals in the posterior pituitary gland. However the release of oxytocin and vasopressin from dendrites is not consistently accompanied by peripheral secretion, as dendritic release is regulated differently. Dendritic release can be triggered by depolarisation, but can also be triggered by the mobilisation of intracellular calcium stores (in the endoplasmic reticulum).

The dendrites receive most of the synaptic inputs from afferent neurons that regulate the magnocellular neurons; typically a magnocellular neuron receives about 10,000 synapses from afferent neurons. Most of these inputs use either glutamate or GABA as a primary neurotransmitter, but there is also a prominent noradrenergic innervation from the A1 cell group in the caudal ventrolateral medulla and from the A2 cell group in the nucleus of the solitary tract.

Magnocellular neurons make several other peptides in addition to oxytocin and vasopressin, though in much smaller amounts. The most abundant of these are cholecystokinin (made in oxytocin neurons), galanin (made in vasopressin cells) and the opioid peptide dynorphin (made in both cell types, but particularly in vasopressin cells)