Somal size of prefrontal cortical pyramidal neurons in schizophrenia

摘要: Abstract Background Cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia may be related to morphologic abnormalities of pyramidal neurons the dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC) and largest deep layer 3 most affected. Immunoreactivity (IR) for nonphosphorylated epitopes neurofilament protein (NNFP) identifies a subset large dPFC neurons. We tested hypotheses that average size NNFP-IR is smaller decrease these greater than observed general population Methods estimated mean somal volume 9 13 matched pairs control subjects compared differences all identified Nissl-stained material. Results In with schizophrenia, was nonsignificantly decreased by 6.6%, whereas significantly 14.2%. Conclusions These results suggest subpopulation are not preferentially affected schizophrenia. Thus, neurons, other those NNFP-IR, selectively vulnerable