Emphysema in the Blotchy mouse: a morphometric study

Inheritance of the Blotchy allele at the X-chromosomal Mottled locus of mice results in changes in the lung which resemble emphysema. Previous studies using measurements of mean linear intercept have recognized emphysema in the hemizygous, Blo/Y, male and homozygous, Blo/Blo, female, but not in the heterozygous, Blo/+, female. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid, accurate method for analysis of emphysema and to establish whether it would identify emphysema in the heterozygote. Lungs from wild type and outbred Blo mice were inflated with fixative at a pressure of 25 cm and then sectioned and stained. Transect lengths across air spaces were measured using computerized image analysis and the results were plotted as histograms. Data were also expressed as cumulative frequencies (ogives) and subjected to statistical analysis by the non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Emphysema was shown by significantly increased (P less than 0.001) transect lengths in the Blo/Blo female and Blo/Y male compared with the wild type controls. The heterozygous Blo/+ mice form an intermediate group significantly different (P less than 0.001) from the wild and blotchy mice. The sensitivity of the method is illustrated by the fact that the Blo/+ female formed an intermediate group between wild type and the Blo/Y male and Blo/Blo female.     

Membranous glomerulonephritis: a morphometric study

Archival material from 45 renal biopsies with a diagnosis of idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) were studied by computer-aided image analysis in order to evaluate the prognostic significance of glomerular and interstitial morphometry in MGN. The control group consisted of thirty seven normal renal biopsy specimens. The surface area, the perimeter, the major axis length and the shape factor of renal glomeruli as well as the percentage of the interstitial fibrosis were measured. All the morphometric parameters related to the size of glomeruli had significantly higher values in the patient group (p = 0.000 for all the parameters). However, no significant difference of the glomerular size between different stages of MGN was observed. In contrast, the percentage of interstitial fibrosis increased as the MGN stage rose (median values: 10.3% in stage 1, 14.2% in stage II, 26.9% in stage III, 28.9% in stage IV and 34.2% in stage V, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA H = 37.645, p = 0.000). In the multivariate analysis the percentage of interstitial fibrosis was the only independent prognostic factor (p = 0.013). Our findings suggest that, in membraneous glomerulonephritis, the interstitial fibrosis increases as the MGN stage progresses, while the size of renal glomeruli has increased at a very early stage of the disease. This fact may indicate that interstitial fibrosis, not glomerular lesions, is mainly responsible for the reduction of renal function.     

Relationships between plasma leptin concentrations and human brain structure: a voxel-based morphometric study

We have previously demonstrated that obese people have reduced grey matter (GM) in several brain areas, including regions implicated in the regulation of taste (i.e., inferior frontal operculum and postcentral gyrus), reward (i.e., putamen), and behavioural processing (i.e., middle frontal gyrus), compared with their lean counterparts. It is well established that the brain may serve as a direct target for adiposity signals, one of the most important being leptin. We investigated the relationships between fasting plasma leptin concentrations and brain tissue composition in a group of 32 young adult Caucasians (12M/20F, age 32+/-1 years, body fat 29+/-1%, mean+/-S.E.) with normal glucose tolerance by using voxel-based morphometry of magnetic resonance imaging scans. Fasting plasma leptin concentrations were positively correlated with GM volumes of the left cerebellum and left inferior temporal gyrus and negatively associated with GM volumes of the left inferior frontal operculum, left postcentral gyrus, and right putamen (P<0.001, uncorrected for multiple comparisons) after adjustment for sex, percent body fat, age, fasting plasma insulin concentrations (i.e., the major determinants of plasma leptin), and global GM volume (thus allowing for an assessment of regional effects only). This study showed an independent, negative correlation between fasting plasma leptin concentrations, which are increased in obesity, and the volumes of GM in brain areas where obese people have reduced GM compared to their lean counterparts. These relationships may explain some of the abnormalities in brain morphology recently found to be associated with excess body fatness.     

Age and gender effects on human brain anatomy: a voxel-based morphometric study in healthy elderly

The adult human brain shrinks slowly with age, but the regional specificity and tissue class specificity of this loss is unclear. Subjects (n=122) were healthy aged participants in a longitudinal cohort who undergo periodic standardized cognitive and clinical examination. Multi-spectral segmentation of magnetic resonance images into grey matter (GM), white matter (WM) and CSF was performed on cross-sectional image data using a custom template and calculated prior probability maps. Global differences were evaluated by fitting a regression model for absolute and normalized subject GM, WM, and CSF values. Global and regional patterns of GM, WM and CSF differences were assessed using optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM). GM volume decreased with age at a rate of 2.4 cm(3)/year (-0.18%/year); CSF increased by 2.5 cm(3)/year (0.20%/year). Regression analyses showed no significant decrease in WM volume, but a focal WM decrease with age was detected in the anterior corpus callosum using VBM. Diffuse reductions of GM volume were seen with age in the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia. Relative regional differences in cortical GM volume with age occurred in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes, but not in medial temporal lobe or in posterior cingulate. We did not observe significant gender effects. These findings establish a baseline for comparison with pathologic changes in human brain volume between ages 58 and 95 years.     

The larger bronchi in byssinosis: a morphometric study

The proportions of gland, muscle and cartilage were measured in the named bronchi of 43 byssinotics, and compared with the proportions in normal subjects and chronic bronchitics. The smoking habits and symptomatology of the byssinotics were also investigated. In the byssinotics the proportions of gland, muscle and cartilage were higher than in the normal, non-smoking subject at all levels in the bronchial tree, and were similar to those in chronic bronchitics. The increase was not confined to the lobar bronchi as the results of a previous investigation had suggested. It is concluded that although exposure to cotton dust is a factor in the pathogenesis of chronic byssinosis, anatomical changes in the bronchi of Lancashire cotton workers are non-specific, and are confounded by other environmental factors. Smoking has a deleterious effect on the natural history of the disease, but no morphological difference between smokers and non-smokers was found.     

Postnatal growth of the sheep lung: a morphometric study

Stereologic methods were used to study lung development in sheep from 2 to 171 days of age. Most growth occurs within the first 2 months when there is a threefold increase in lung volume, but allometric relationships show that this increase does not keep pace with body weight. Alveolar and capillary surface areas increase as lung volume to a power only slightly larger than 1, suggesting a modest increase in complexity; this is confirmed by only a two- to threefold increase in total alveolar number. Allometric power functions are essentially unchanged even during the first 30 days so that throughout development, the surface for gas exchange is added at a fairly constant rate. A slight increase in septal volume during the first 30 days is probably due to relative increase in capillary luminal volume through a progressive distension of capillaries. The results suggest that the active newborn lamb requires an alveolar lung, but in the postnatal period functional needs increase only moderately. In contrast, other mammals, such as the rat, are helpless as newborns and have a primitive saccular lung that must undergo considerable morphogenesis to meet the demands of the active adult.     

Dystroglycan distribution in adult mouse brain: a light and electron microscopy study

Dystroglycan, originally identified in muscle as a component of the dystrophin-associated glycoprotein complex, is a ubiquitously expressed cell-surface receptor that forms a transmembrane link between the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton. It contains two subunits, alpha and beta, formed by proteolytic cleavage of a common precursor. In the brain, different neuronal subtypes and glial cells may express dystroglycan in complex with distinct cytoplasmic proteins such as dystrophin, utrophin and their truncated forms. To examine the distribution of dystroglycan in adult mouse brain, we raised antibodies against the recombinant amino- and carboxyl-terminal domains of alpha-dystroglycan. On western blot, the antibodies recognized specifically alpha-dystroglycan in cerebellar extracts. Using light microscopy, alpha-dystroglycan was found in neurons of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, basal ganglia, thalamus, hypothalamus, brainstem and cerebellum, where dystrophin and its truncated isoforms are also known to be present. Electron microscopy revealed that alpha-dystroglycan immunoreactivity was preferentially associated with the postsynaptic specializations. Dystroglycan immunostaining was also detected in perivascular astrocytes and in those facing the pia mater, where utrophin and dystrophin truncated isoforms are present. The cell body and endfeet of astrocytes around blood vessels and the endothelial cells at the blood-brain barrier also expressed dystroglycan.From these data, we suggest that dystroglycan, by bridging the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton, may play an important functional role at specialized intercellular contacts, synapses and the blood-brain barrier, whose structural and functional organization strictly depend on the integrity of the extracellular matrix-cytoskeleton linkage.     

Pulmonary vascular lesions in the adult respiratory distress syndrome caused by inhalation of zinc chloride smoke: a morphometric study.

Two soldiers were fatally injured by accidental inhalation of zinc chloride (ZnCl2) from a smoke bomb. Although exposed to a relatively short but high smoke concentration, acute injury was minor and for 10 days the patients were clinically satisfactory. Unexpectedly, both then rapidly developed features typical of severe adult respiratory distress syndrome with pulmonary hypertension. Intubation and mechanical ventilation were instigated on day 15 (patient no. 1) and day 12 (patient no. 2) after the inhalation, but death followed at days 25 and 32, respectively. Lung vascular injury was assessed by angiography and morphometric techniques. The lungs showed extensive interstitial and intra-alveolar space fibrosis. Vessels showed a significant lumen reduction by contracture (that is, reduction in vessel external diameter) affecting preacinar and intraacinar arterial and venous segments, the extent of injury suggesting that hexite causes more severe venous injury than seen in other types of adult respiratory distress syndrome. In microvessels there was obliteration and widespread occlusion by endothelial cell proliferation and clot. No evidence of infection was identified during life or at autopsy. It is unclear whether the long lag time was due to the fact that the infection was not a complicating event or because steroids, administered prophylactically, had sufficed to delay, but not to prevent, the amplification of injury that seems responsible for the adult respiratory distress syndrome.     

Localization of pterion in neonatal cadavers: a morphometric study

Purpose  

Pterion is defined as a junction of temporal, frontal, parietal, and sphenoid bones. In newborns, pterion may be defined as a region that shows variability in the exact location because of the lack of complete bony structure. The aim of this study is to define the topographic anatomy of this important surgical point, pterion, and the variability of its localization on craniums of newborn cadavers.     

Anatomy of the human nucleus accumbens: a combined morphometric study

Purpose  

The human nucleus accumbens (NA), which belongs to the basal ganglia of the brain, is the main part of the ventral striatum. The purpose of our clinically oriented anatomical-radiologic study was to provide anatomical and imaging data of the human NA, primarily useful to neurosurgeons.     

Abnormal macrophage development in Hodgkin's disease: a morphometric study

The development of macrophages from blood monocytes from 22 patients with untreated Hodgkin's disease and 20 normal subjects has been studied at intervals over a 6-day period of suspension culture in the presence of autologous serum and lymphocytes. Morphometric measurements were made on electron micrographs and the results subjected to multivariate and univariate analyses of variance. The cells from the Hodgkin's group showed highly significant differences from normal. The whole-cell volume, surface area, and cell membrane excess, as well as the mitochondrial volume and surface area, showed smaller increases over the period of culture, and the normal increase in mitochondrial profile numbers was not seen. It would appear that although the patients' monocytes transformed into macrophages in culture, their development was seriously deranged.     

成年脑内神经干细胞的研究进展

以前 ,人们普遍认为中枢神经系统的神经元发生在出生前或出生后不久即停止。然而 ,近 30年来 ,许多研究报道成年后仍有新的神经元继续加入哺乳动物的脑部 ,这些生成神经元的前体细胞 ,一般位于脑室侧壁。它们从这些增殖性区域向离它们最近的靶组织迁移并进行分化 [1 ]。在体外 ,这些神经干细胞能被生长因子或细胞素诱导增殖 ,并在不同环境因子的作用下具有不同的分化。近年来 ,有关生长因子和细胞素对神经干细胞的诱导及多能神经干细胞的移植研究等已成为人们关注的焦点。本文对神经干细胞的研究进展作一简要综述并对相关问题进行初步探讨。…     

Representative sample of rheumatoid synovium: a morphometric study.

The synovium from 11 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, who were undergoing joint surgery, was assessed using histological and morphometric techniques. Histological examination confirmed previous reports that the intensity of the cellular reaction varied throughout the synovium, and the morphometric method reflected this variability sensitively. The method was shown to be reproducible and allowed areas of similar cellular density to be defined. From these defined areas a total of 2.5 mm2 of synovium equivalent to 12 fields at x250 required analysis to reflect the variation in the cellular reaction. It would be feasible to collect this amount of material using an arthroscope.     

Ultrastructure of neurons in the auditory cortex of ageing rats: a morphometric study

Summary The cell bodies of pyramidal cells in layers II and V of rat auditory cortex were quantitatively examined in groups of rats 3, 6, 15, 23, 27 and 34–36 months of age. The mean diameters of cell bodies of both layer II and layer V neurons, as measured in 1 m plastic sections, increased between 3 and 15 months of age, then decreased to a diameter that was less in the 36-month-old than in the 3-month-old rats. Morphometry of the nuclei of the cells was done by measuring nuclear area and nuclear envelope length directly on electron micrographs. In the layer II cells, neither parameter changed with advancing age. In the layer V cells, the mean nuclear area decreased significantly in the old animals and the mean envelope length increased. Point-counting techniques were applied to electron micrographs of cell bodies to determine the relative volume of selected organelles, inclusions and ground substance in the perikaryal cytoplasm. In this part of the study the chronological pattern of change in layer II and layer V pyramidal cells was similar. The relative volume of dense bodies increased linearly with advancing age, with a slightly more accelerated rate in layer II cells. The relative volume of ground substance remained essentially constant through 27 months, and then at 34–36 months decreased to 83% and 89% of the three-month level in layer V and layer II, respectively. The relative volume of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) did not change significantly until after 15 months, at which time it began to occupy increasingly a larger fraction of the perikaryal cytoplasm. Finally, the relative volumes of mitochondria, multivesicular bodies and Golgi apparatus did not show clear trends of change during the 33-month period.