Abstract
Dendritic pathology and decrease of dendritic spine density are prominent phenomena
in early cases of Alzheimer's disease, which correlate significantly with the progressive
decline of the mental faculties. In previous studies we have described the pathological
alterations of the dendrites and the dendritic spines in the prefrontal area of the
cortex and the cerebellum. In this study we attempted to describe the morphological
alterations of the dendrites and the dendritic spines, quantifying them in the acoustic
and the visual cortices of eleven cases of Alzheimer's disease, applying Golgi staining
and electron microscopy. In addition, describing also the ultrastructural changes
of the mitochondria in the dendritic profiles and the dendritic spines we noticed
that mitochondrial pathology correlates substantially with the dystrophic dendrites,
the loss of dendritic branches and the pathological alteration of the dendritic spines.
We would hypothesize that mitochondrial alterations may play a very important role
in dendritic degeneration and the loss of dendritic spines and we should have thought
that therapeutic strategies protecting the mitochondria may be beneficial in Alzheimer's
disease.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 18, 2009
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© 2009 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
