A golgi study of cell types in the dentate gyrus of the adult human brain

Abstract

1. The morphology of neurons in the dentate gyrus of the adult human brain was analyzed with two variants of Golgi technique. 2. About 20 neuronal types and subtypes were observed in the dentate gyrus of the adult human, several of which has not previously been described in the human. The human dentate gyrus harbors 4 types of neurons in the molecular layer, 3 types within the granule cell layer, and at least 10 types in the hilus. 3. Compared to the granule neurons in the rat brain, human granule neurons show a much greater variability. Many of these human neurons have basal dendrites and/or axonal spines. Also, there are significant differences among these neurons regarding the density of their dendritic trees and dendritic spines. In contrast to the rat, human hilar neurons with complex spines have complex spines not only on their dendrites but also on their cell bodies. 4. This study opens the door for further morphological studies involving specific diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy.

Hippocampal granule cell pathology in epilepsy — A possible structural basis for comorbidities of epilepsy?

“…Few studies have examined patients with schizophrenia; however, in 2003 Senitz and Beckmann examined rapid autopsy material and found an increase in the percentage of granule cells with basal dendrites in tissue from patients with the disease [159]. Studies of granule cell basal dendrites in humans are more complicated than in rodents, since rodent granule cells typically lack basal dendrites, while human granule cells frequently possess basal dendrites under normal conditions [160, 161]. The increase from 28% of cells with basal dendrites in healthy human controls to 46% in patients with schizophrenia, however, is suggestive.…”

A Golgi study of the principal projection neurons of the medial cortex of the lizardPodarcis hispanica

“…More recently, some degree of morphological variability concerning dendritic trees and cell bodies of dentate granule cells has been reported (Seress and Frotscher, 1990;Al-Hussein and Al-Ali, 1995). Basal dendrites are transitory in immature dentate granule cells of rodents (Seress and Pokorny, 1981;Lü bbers and Frotscher, 1987, 1988), they are frequent in ectopic granule cells (Martí-Subirana et al, 1986), and they are considered an aberrant characteristic in granule cells under experimental conditions (Hartmann et al, 1989;Heimrich and Frotscher, 1991).…”

“…Basal dendrites are transitory in immature dentate granule cells of rodents (Seress and Pokorny, 1981;Lü bbers and Frotscher, 1987, 1988), they are frequent in ectopic granule cells (Martí-Subirana et al, 1986), and they are considered an aberrant characteristic in granule cells under experimental conditions (Hartmann et al, 1989;Heimrich and Frotscher, 1991). Moreover, basal dendrites are rare in mature granule cells of rabbits (Ramón y Cajal, 1904b, 1911, but they are regularly seen in granule cells of other mammalian species (Buhl and Dann, 1990), including primates and humans (Ramón y Cajal, 1904b, 1911Seress and Mrzljak, 1987;Frotscher et al, 1988;Seress and Frotscher, 1990;Al-Hussein and Al-Ali, 1995). The morphology of dentate granule cells with basal dendrites is quite similar to that of bitufted neurons in the lizard medial cortex.…”

“…At first, superficial granules are larger, whereas deeper ones are smaller (Ramón y Cajal, 1904b, 1911. Moreover, there is a direct relationship between the soma size and the morphology of dendrites (Duffy and Rakic, 1983;Williams and Matthysse, 1983;Seress and Frotscher, 1990;Al-Hussein and Al-Ali, 1995). Thus, large granules have thick, spine-rich dendrites, whereas small granules show fine, spine-poor dendrites (Williams and Mathysse, 1983;Seress and Frotscher, 1990).…”

“…Thus, large granules have thick, spine-rich dendrites, whereas small granules show fine, spine-poor dendrites (Williams and Mathysse, 1983;Seress and Frotscher, 1990). In humans, sparsely spiny, or aspinous non-granular cells in the fascia dentata-named nG1 neurons- (Al-Hussein and Al-Ali, 1995) are very similar to the sparsely spiny bitufted neurons of this lizard species.…”