Saturday, June 03, 2006
It's Circuitry (which is changable)...Not Re-Uptake!
Biol Psychiatry. 1999 May 1;45(9):1085-98. | |
Morphometric evidence for neuronal and glial prefrontal cell pathology in major depression.
Rajkowska G, Miguel-Hidalgo JJ, Wei J, Dilley G, Pittman SD, Meltzer HY, Overholser JC, Roth BL, Stockmeier CA.
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 39216, USA.
BACKGROUND: This report provides histopathological evidence to support prior neuroimaging findings of decreased volume and altered metabolism in the frontal cortex in major depressive disorder. METHODS: Computer-assisted three-dimensional cell counting was used to reveal abnormal cytoarchitecture in left rostral and caudal orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortical regions in subjects with major depression as compared to psychiatrically normal controls. RESULTS: Depressed subjects had decreases in cortical thickness, neuronal sizes, and neuronal and glial densities in the upper (II-IV) cortical layers of the rostral orbitofrontal region. In the caudal orbitofrontal cortex in depressed subjects, there were prominent reductions in glial densities in the lower (V-VI) cortical layers that were accompanied by small but significant decreases in neuronal sizes. In the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of depressed subjects marked reductions in the density and size of neurons and glial cells were found in both supra- and infragranular layers.