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Assessment of Hippocampal Dendritic Complexity in Aged Mice Using the Golgi-Cox Method
Published on: June 22, 2017
Granule cells of the dentate gyrus with basal and recurrent dendrites in schizophrenic patients and controls. A
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany. senitz@mail.uni-wuerzburg.de
Abstract:
We report on structural variability of granule cells in the human dentate gyrus. Granule cells with basal and recurrent dendrites are a normal finding in the human brain. We detect 28.3% granule cells with basal dendrites in non-psychiatrically ill humans compared to rats (2%) and primates (10%). This can be seen as an indication for the higher phylogeny of the human brain. In addition we find a significantly higher incidence of granule cells with basal dendrites (45.7%) in brains of schizophrenic patients. Whereas drug influences during lifetime cannot fully be excluded, we tend to interpret this finding as a plastic reaction to prenatal developmental malformations of the impinging rostral entorhinal region.

