[Compensatory-adaptive restructuring of the aging human brain]

In semithin sections of the frontal and temporal cortex from the human brains the compensatory-adaptive changes of neurons and glia were studied. The specimens were obtained from 2 physiologically aged subjects, 7 cases of senile dementia, 2 cases of Alzheimer disease. Alongside with the destructive changes in nerve and glial cells, the compensatory-adaptive processes were detected in aging brains, generally characteristic of the physiologic aging: the nucleolus shift to the nucleus periphery; redistribution of the nuclear chromatin, nuclear membrane invagination; closer attraction of the organelles to nuclear membrane as destruction increased; assembling the neural and glial cells; establishment of the desmosome-like glioglial contacts.