title: Morphological changes of the human purkinje cells and deposition of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles on the cerebellar cortex of Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by progressive decline in memory and in social performance. The morphological hallmarks of the disease are neuronal loss, loss of dendritic spines, neurofibrillary degeneration and neuritic plaques mainly in the hippocampus and the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. This study is based on the morphological analysis of the cerebellar cortices of eight brains, 4 patients suffered from Alzheimer's disease and 4 normal controls, by Golgi method, as well as Nissl, Gallyas', Bielschowsky's, Methenamine Silver staining and Congo red methods. Although typical neuritic plaques were not seen in the cerebellar cortex and the diffuse plaques found in the cerebellum in far smaller proportion than plaques in the prefrontal and parietal cortices of the same cases, Golgi impregnation technique revealed a loss of Purkinje cells and a marked decrease in the density of dendritic arborization.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Neurology, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece. iamav79@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Ioannis A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Mavroudis
authors.forename: Dimitrios F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Fotiou
authors.forename: Luc F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Adipepe
authors.forename: Marina G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Manani
authors.forename: Samuel D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Njau
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Psaroulis
authors.forename: Vasiliki G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Stavros J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Baloyannis
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D002525:Cerebellar Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D003224:Congo Red; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000473:pathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008709:Methenamine; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000473:pathology*; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid / Q000473:pathology*; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016622:Silver Staining / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D003224:Congo Red; D008709:Methenamine