Bondareff W
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Los Angeles 90033.
Neurobiol Aging. 1987 Nov-Dec;8(6):562-3. doi: 10.1016/0197-4580(87)90135-7.
Changes in the magnitude of neuronal loss, which represent the end point of neuronal degeneration, are controversial and of limited utility as a measure of functional decline in aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Changes in the size of neurons and organelles, in the distributions of dendritic and synaptic fields, and in the relationships between neurons and the transmitter substances they produce, may be more useful in that they estimate changes in neuronal function prior to neuronal loss. The quantitative assessment of metabolic change in individual neurons by measuring histochemical reactivity, or more directly measuring enzyme activity or the amounts of its products might more reliably reflect degenerative changes associated with aging or AD, prior to the loss of neurons.
神经元丢失程度的变化代表了神经元变性的终点，作为衰老和阿尔茨海默病（AD）功能衰退的衡量指标存在争议且效用有限。神经元及其细胞器大小的变化、树突和突触场分布的变化，以及神经元与其所产生的递质物质之间关系的变化，可能更有用，因为它们能在神经元丢失之前估计神经元功能的变化。通过测量组织化学反应性，或者更直接地测量酶活性或其产物的量，对单个神经元的代谢变化进行定量评估，可能在神经元丢失之前更可靠地反映与衰老或AD相关的退行性变化。
