Arnold S E, Franz B R, Gur R C, Gur R E, Shapiro R M, Moberg P J, Trojanowski J Q
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104-4283, USA.
Am J Psychiatry. 1995 May;152(5):738-48. doi: 10.1176/ajp.152.5.738.
The goal of this study was to characterize the hippocampal formation in patients with schizophrenia by measuring neuron density, neuron size, and variability of neuronal axis orientation.
Brain tissue was obtained at autopsy from 14 prospectively accrued elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia and 10 age-compatible individuals without psychiatric disorder. Eight hippocampal regions of interest and two internal control regions (primary motor and visual cortices) were identified on Nissl-stained sections. Morphometric measurements were made without knowledge of diagnosis by means of a computer-based image analysis system.
The patients exhibited smaller neuron size in the hippocampal regions relative to the control regions, which was significant only for the subiculum, CA1, and layer II of the entorhinal cortex. Neuron size in the control regions was nearly identical in the two groups. No significant differences in neuron density or in variability of neuronal axis orientation were identified for any region. There was no correlation between neuron size in any area and several potentially confounding variables (age, post-mortem interval, neuroleptic exposure, sex, brain hemisphere studied, duration of illness), with the exception of a negative correlation with age in layer II of the entorhinal cortex. Regression analyses indicated that the findings could not be attributed to these age effects.
The subiculum, entorhinal cortex, and CA1 are the major subfields of the hippocampal region that maintain the afferent and efferent connections of the hippocampus with widespread cortical and subcortical targets. The smaller size of neurons in these subfields may reflect the presence of structural or functional impairments that disrupt these connections, which in turn could have important behavioral sequelae.
本研究的目的是通过测量神经元密度、神经元大小和神经元轴方向的变异性来描述精神分裂症患者的海马结构。
从14例前瞻性招募的老年慢性精神分裂症患者和10例年龄匹配的无精神疾病个体的尸检脑组织中获取样本。在尼氏染色切片上确定了八个海马感兴趣区域和两个内部对照区域（初级运动和视觉皮层）。通过基于计算机的图像分析系统在不知道诊断结果的情况下进行形态测量。
与对照区域相比，患者海马区域的神经元较小，仅在海马下脚、CA1区和内嗅皮层II层有显著差异。两组对照区域的神经元大小几乎相同。在任何区域均未发现神经元密度或神经元轴方向变异性的显著差异。除内嗅皮层II层与年龄呈负相关外，任何区域的神经元大小与几个潜在的混杂变量（年龄、死后间隔时间、抗精神病药物暴露、性别、研究的脑半球、病程）之间均无相关性。回归分析表明，这些发现不能归因于年龄效应。
海马下脚、内嗅皮层和CA1区是海马区域的主要亚区，维持着海马与广泛的皮层和皮层下靶点的传入和传出连接。这些亚区中神经元较小可能反映了破坏这些连接的结构或功能损伤的存在，进而可能产生重要的行为后遗症。
