The present estimates of displacement within the human central fovea offer the possibility of analysis of quantitative relations between cones and retinal ganglion cells. Our data provide predictive guidance by establishing that vitreo-retinal procedures causing damage to retinal ganglion cells up to 1 mm from the foveal centre could have implications for loss of information generated within the fovea.

The Norrbottnian type of Gaucher disease is characterized by infantile or juvenile onset and variable degrees of neurological symptoms, some of which develop only after splenectomy. A full neuropathological description of this type of Gaucher disease has not been reported previously. The brains of five patients were examined morphologically and biochemically. All presented typical accumulations of glucosylceramide storing cells in the adventitia of vessels in the cerebral and cerebellar sub-cortical white matter (s.c.w.m.). There were differences between the five cases with regard to the accumulation of adventitial storage cells and to the fatty acid pattern of the glucosylceramide isolated from the s.c.w.m., which implicate that the accumulation of glucosylceramide in adventitial cells in the brain is dependent on the generalized lipid storage process and enhanced by splenectomy. Loss of neurones and myelin was noted in the vicinity of accumulations of storage cells in two cases. The five cases showed varying degrees of nerve cell loss, satellitosis and neuronophagia. Lipofuscin with simple and complex lipids but no glycolipids could be demonstrated in neurones light-microscopically. Ultrastructural examination revealed inclusion bodies with bilayers in neurones of the cerebral and cerebellar cortex, dentate nucleus and pons. Because of the bilayered structure of Gaucher cell inclusions the bilayers in neurones are assumed to be formed by glucosylceramide. The fatty acid composition of glucosylceramide isolated from cerebral cortex in all cases suggested that cerebral gangliosides were its main precursor. The highest levels of psychosine (glucosylsphingosine) were seen in the cases with the most advanced nerve cell loss. The morphological and biochemical findings indicate that the neuronopathic process is associated with accumulation of glucosylceramide and psychosine in neurones.

For an understanding of the basis for psychophysical measurement of visual resolution, quantitative morphological studies of retinal neuronal architecture are needed. Here we report on cell densities and retinal ganglion cell:cone ratio (RGC:C) from the foveal border to the peripheral retina (34 degrees eccentricity). Quantitative estimates of RGC and C densities were made using a modified disector method in three vertically sectioned human retinae and were adjusted for RGC displacement. In agreement with our previous data on humans, we found an RGC:C ratio close to 3 at 2-3 degrees eccentricity. Outside the foveal border, the ratio declined to 1.0 at 7.5 degrees eccentricity and to 0.5 at eccentricities larger than 19 degrees. Center-to-center separation of C and RGC in addition to center-to-center separation of estimated 'receptive fields' was calculated at corresponding locations along the superior and inferior hemimeridians. The center-to-center separation of estimated 'receptive fields' was found to be more closely related to resolution thresholds from the fovea to 19 degrees eccentricity than was the separation of RGC and C. On the basis of these quantitative estimates, models for neural circuitry involved in central and peripheral spatial vision can be discussed.

We performed a neuropathological study on 5 fetuses with an autosomal recessive, lethal syndrome of congenital contractures diagnosed by fetal hydrops on ultrasonography. The fetuses showed a typical pattern of malpositioning of hips and knees with occasional pterygia of the neck and elbows. The muscles were hypoplastic and the spinal cords showed severe thinning, most markedly affecting the ventral half. A total loss of axons in the ventral and lateral funiculi, subtotal loss of anterior horn motor neurons with accompanying astrocytosis and astrogliosis, and similar but less severe changes at the brain stem level suggested a degenerative rather than a dysmorphogenetic mechanism. Sensory nuclei and pathways were distinctly less severely affected, if at all. The findings further delineate this condition as a genetically and pathoanatomically distinct autosomal recessive syndrome.

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