scholarly journals No changes in neocortical cell volumes or glial cell numbers in chronic alcoholic subjects compared to control subjects

2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 400-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Fabricius ◽  
H. Pakkenberg ◽  
B. Pakkenberg
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Damgaard Nielsen ◽  
Maja Abitz ◽  
Bente Pakkenberg

Several stereological studies of schizophrenic subjects have shown reduction in both the total number of neurons and in the total volume of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MD). This is in contrast to other studies in that no differences have been found. Using systematic random sampling and an optical fractionator design, the total number of neuron and glial cells in the MD subdivisions: parvocellular (MDPC), magnocellular (MDMC), and densocellular (MDDC) were counted in brains from 9 schizophrenic and 8 control subjects. The control subjects were age, height and body-weight matched to the schizophrenic subjects. We found the neuronal numbers in the schizophrenic subjects to range more than a factor of two, from 3.68 to 9.22 x 106. This is in contrast to the control subjects, who ranged from 5.24 to 7.10 x 106 in neuronal cell numbers. Within our inhomogeneous sample, some schizophrenic subjects thus exhibited relative high total neuron numbers in MD, while others exhibited relative low neuron numbers. The result is in line with the heterogeneity of this severe mental disease and may help to explain why different research groups get different results. The major limitation in this study is the small number of brains of schizophrenic subjects with a high degree of inhomogeneity in length of disease and age of onset. The debates of the comparison of the neurons in the MD in brains of schizophrenic subjects and control subjects and the possible impact of this variance on the disease are still not complete.


Hippocampus ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 826-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.C. Joelving ◽  
R. Billeskov ◽  
J.R. Christensen ◽  
M. West ◽  
B. Pakkenberg

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 212-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorte P. Pelvig ◽  
Henning Pakkenberg ◽  
Lisbeth Regeur ◽  
Solveig Oster ◽  
Bente Pakkenberg

Development ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-112
Author(s):  
P.A. Eccleston ◽  
P.G. Bannerman ◽  
D.E. Pleasure ◽  
J. Winter ◽  
R. Mirsky ◽  
...  

Neuronal membranes from rat dorsal root ganglia provide a mitogenic signal to cultured Schwann cells and it has been suggested this is an important factor in regulating Schwann cell numbers during development. In this study, the influence of enteric neurons on the DNA synthesis of both Schwann cells and enteric glia has been investigated as well as the effect of axonal membrane fractions (axolemma) on enteric glia. The proliferation rate of rat Schwann cells and enteric glia was assessed in culture using [3H]thymidine uptake and autoradiography in combination with immunolabelling to identify cell types. When purified rat Schwann cells were co-cultured with guinea pig enteric neurons, their DNA synthesis rate was reduced compared with control cultures of pure Schwann cells or Schwann cells not close to neurites or neuronal cell bodies. Nevertheless, in accordance with previous findings that sensory neurons stimulate Schwann cell division, these Schwann cells increased their DNA synthesis rate when in contact with neurites from purified guinea pig or adult rat dorsal root ganglion neurons and on exposure to bovine axolemmal fractions. The enteric neurons also suppressed the DNA synthesis of enteric glia in co-cultures of purified enteric neurons and enteric glia, while bovine axolemma stimulated their DNA synthesis. These results indicate that a mitotic inhibitory signal is associated with enteric neurons and can exert its effect on both Schwann cells and enteric glia, and that enteric glia, like Schwann cells, are stimulated to divide by axolemmal fractions. It thus seems possible that during development glial cell numbers in the peripheral nervous system may be controlled by both positive and negative regulators of cell growth.


2007 ◽  
Vol 290 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeppe Romme Christensen ◽  
Karen Bonde Larsen ◽  
Sarah H. Lisanby ◽  
Jason Scalia ◽  
Victoria Arango ◽  
...  

1997 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Princi ◽  
Mary Artero ◽  
Noelia Malusà ◽  
Laura Uxa ◽  
Vincenzo Livia ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 480-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Roth ◽  
Dominique M. Chevalier ◽  
Lara D. LaDage ◽  
Vladimir V. Pravosudov

1984 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. C. Martin ◽  
A. J. Levi ◽  
G. Slavin ◽  
T. J. Peters

1. The capacity for glycolysis in muscle biopsies obtained from long-term heavy alcohol drinking patients has been compared with tissue from control subjects by assay in vitro of the total activities of glycogen phosphorylase, phosphofructokinase and fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase, key regulatory enzymes in the anaerobic glycolytic pathway. 2. Biopsies from 13 of 22 patients had type II fibre atrophy, and the activities of all three enzymes were reduced in these biopsies, when expressed in terms of DNA content, the most striking reduction being in phosphofructokinase activity. 3. The amount of glycogen in the tissue correlated closely with these enzyme activities and was slightly lower in the most atrophic tissue, when expressed in terms of DNA content. 4. The activities of acid and neutral α-glucosidases were similar in biopsies from control subjects and patients with various severities of alcohol myopathy. 5. The reduced activities are consistent with a reduced proportion of type II fibre muscle mass in these patients, and suggest that there may be a reduced capacity for glycolysis with resultant reduced lactate production. Whether the changes in enzyme activities are primary to the selective atrophy remains to be established.


2007 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 960-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanami Orihara ◽  
Masami Narita ◽  
Takashi Tobe ◽  
Akira Akasawa ◽  
Yukihiro Ohya ◽  
...  

1979 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hamilton

SummaryThe progress of 52 chronic alcoholic habitual drunken offenders who were offered a detoxification, assessment and referral service as an alternative to penal management for their public drunkenness was compared over a year with 48 control subjects, and each group's progress in the experimental year was compared with that in the previous year. The ‘detoxification’ patients were found not to have benefited as regards their alcoholism or episodes of drunkenness, though their periods of abstinence were longer. There were significant improvements in their accommodation and self-reported quality of life, and it is likely that their physical and perhaps mental health improved.


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