The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution and fluorescene intensity of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide(VIP) immunoreactive cells in rat trigeminal ganglion after inferior alveolar nerve axotomy. The animals were divided into normal and two experimental groups. The experimental animals were sacrificed at 14th and 28th day after inferior alveolar nerve axotomy. The trigeminal ganglion was removed and immersed in the 4% paraformaldehyde-0.2% picric acid in 0.1M phosphate buffer. Serial frozon sections about $16{mu}m$ in thickness were cut with a cryostat. The immunofluorescence staining was performed. The rabbit anti-VIP(1 : 8,000) was used as primary antibody and fluorescene isothiocynate(FITC)-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG(1 : 80) as secondary antibody. The slides were observed under confocal laser scanning microscope. Three-dimensional images were constructed from 9 serial images(each $1{mu}m$ in thickness) made by automatic optical sectioning. Unprocessed optical sections were obtained and stored on a optical disk. Color picture were printed by a video copy processor. The results were as follows; 1. The appearance of VIP immunoreactive cells in the mandibular part of trigeminal ganglion was 8.79${pm}$1.99% in normal group and 39.16${pm}$5.62% in 14 days, 16.25${pm}$2.39% in 28 days after inferior alveolar nerve axotomy groups. 2. The relative fluorescence intensity of VIP immunoreactive cell bodies in the mandibular part of trigeminal ganglion was 134.40${pm}$10.39 in normal group and 192.88${pm}$14.06 in 14 days, 143.10${pm}$5.02 in 28 days after nerve axotomy groups. Therefore, the relative fluorescence intensity of 14 days after nerve axotomy group was 43.3% higher than intensity of normal group. 3. In optical single section analysis of VIP immunoreactive cell bodies, white cell bodies(moderate fluorescence intensity) were the most abundant in normal and 28 days after nerve axotomy groups. Whereas, in 14 days after nerve axotomy group, red cell bodies(high fluorescence intensity) were the most abundant. 4. In optical serial section analysis of VIP immunoreactive cell bodies, red cell bodies(high fluorescence intensity) were observed in a part of the 9 sections of normal and 24 days after nerve axotomy groups. Whereas, red cell bodies were observed in all of the 9 sections of 14 days after nerve axotomy group. 5. The results indicates that number and fluorescence intensity of VIP immunoreactive cells were increased in the mandibular part of trigeminal ganglion following inferior alveolar nerve axotomy.