Stereologische Untersuchung der Gesamtzahl von Nervenzellen in Brodmann Areal 24 im Gehirn von männlichen Patienten mit Schizophrenie

Popal, Melanie (2024): Stereologische Untersuchung der Gesamtzahl von Nervenzellen in Brodmann Areal 24 im Gehirn von männlichen Patienten mit Schizophrenie. Dissertation, LMU München: Medizinische Fakultät

Abstract

In schizophrenia, alterations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and in particular in Brodmann area 24 (BA 24) in the ACC, may correlate with the clinical picture of the disease and have been regularly observed in clinical imaging studies and neuropathological studies on post mortem brains of patients with schizophrenia. However, despite these efforts, the neuropathology of schizophrenia in BA 24 is still largely unknown. This study tested, for the first time, the following hypothesis: compared to the brains of healthy controls, the mean total number of nerve cells in layer V in BA 24 is statistically significantly reduced in the brains of patients with schizophrenia, but not the mean total number of nerve cells in layers I-III and VI and the mean density of nerve cells in the individual layers of BA 24. This hypothesis was tested on post mortem brains of 12 male patients with schizophrenia and 11 neurologically and psychiatrically normal male controls with a comparable age structure. Total numbers of nerve cells were determined using the "optical fractionator" method; neuron densities were determined by dividing the total number of neurons in a region of interest (ROI) by the volume of the corresponding ROI. In the post mortem brains of the patients with schizophrenia, the mean total number of neurons in layer V in BA 24 was statistically significantly lower than in controls (left: -17.2%; right: -20.9%; p=0.002). This finding could not be explained by an isolated loss of the so-called spindle cells in layer V in BA 24 (which accounted for on average only 1.5% of the neurons in layer V in BA 24), but statistically significantly (p = 0.002) also affected those neurons in layer V in BA 24 that were not spindle cells. In contrast, no statistically significant differences were found between the patients with schizophrenia and the controls for the mean total number of nerve cells in layers I-III and VI and for the density of nerve cells in layers I-III and VI or in layer V (p > 0.05). In summary, the results of this study can contribute to establishing an anatomical basis for the disturbed connectivity in the brains of patients with schizophrenia, which in turn can make the results of functional MRI studies on schizophrenia easier to explain.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften ; 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• Fakultäten: Medizinische Fakultät
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Deutsch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 14. März 2024
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Schmitz, Christoph