Decreased oligodendrocyte nuclear diameter in Alzheimer's disease and lewy body dementia

Eva Gagyi, Bernadett Kormos, Karla J. Castellanos, Klara Valyi-Nagy, Dennis Korneff, Patrizia Lopresti, Randy Woltjer, Tibor Valyi-Nagy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

To better understand the pathogenesis of dementia, it is important to understand histopathologic changes in neurodegenerative diseases because they might highlight key aspects of the degenerative process. In this study, the nuclear diameter of neurons and oligodendrocytes in selected temporal lobe areas were determined in autopsy tissue sections from patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), Lewy body dementia (LBD) and controls. Our morphometric studies targeted neurons in the CA4 region of the pyramidal cell layer of the hippocampus, neurons in the granular layer of the dentate gyrus and oligodendrocytes in parahippocampal white matter. Mean neuronal nuclear diameters were not different among the studied groups. However, our studies revealed a statistically significant reduction of mean oligodendrocyte nuclear diameter in AD and LBD relative to controls. The reduction of the mean nucleus diameter of oligodendrocytes in LBD was independent of the presence of associated AD pathology in LBD. These findings for the first time identify decreased oligodendrocyte nucleus diameter as a morphologic feature of AD and LBD and may lead to a better understanding of the role of oligodendrocytes in AD and LBD pathogenesis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)803-810
Number of pages8
JournalBrain Pathology
Volume22
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2012

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Lewy body dementia
  • atrophy
  • nuclear size
  • oligodendrocyte
  • white matter

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology
  • General Neuroscience
  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine

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