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- Number 2 - July 1999
- Age changes in number of pigmented neurons on the monkey locus coeruleus
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Age changes in number of pigmented neurons on the monkey locus coeruleus
Abstract
Using stereological counting methods, the total number of pigmented and non-pigmented nerve cells was estimated in locus coeruleus of 19 rhesus monkeys: 13 old animals (10 females, three males), and six young females. Statistically, the total cell number was not different in young and old animals: 47,700 (coefficient of variation (CV = SD/mean) = 0.30) in young and 53,200 (CV = 0.64) in old monkeys; thus, no loss of neurons was found as a function of age. Young monkeys had an average of 1,600 (CV = 1.49) pigmented neurons, while the old anmials had 10,600 (CV = 1.16) pigmented neurons in locus coeruleus, so increased pigmentation is a function of age. The number of nonpigmented cells was almost the same in the two groups (young animals 46,100 (CV = 0.39) and old animals 42,600 (CV = 0.81). Locus coeruleus volume was the same in young and old animals, and there were no statistically significant systematic right-left differences in the number of pigmented and nonpigmented neurons. Relatively few age-related changes have previously been confinned in primates.
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About: Henning Pakkenberg
Neurological Research Laboratory, Bartholin Institute, Kommunehospitalet, 1399 Copenhagen K, and Stereological Research Laboratory, Aarhus University, Denmark
About: Richard S. Bums
Dept. of Neurology/S 91, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
About: Bente Pakkenberg
Neurological Research Laboratory, Bartholin Institute, Kommunehospitalet, 1399 Copenhagen K, and Stereological Research Laboratory, Aarhus University, Denmark