Reduced Purkinje cell density in Huntington's disease.
We studied, in a "blind" and quantitative fashion, the density of cerebellar Purkinje cells in 17 adult cases of Huntington's disease ( HD), 17 patients with other movement disorders, 17 with schizophrenia, and 23 normal controls. There was a highly significant reduction in Purkinje cell density in HD compared with any of the other three groups. A much smaller difference in neuronal density between patients with other movement disorders and normal controls was barely significant. Eight of the 17 HD patients and only 1 of the other 57 subjects had Purkinje cell density less than 50% of the mean for the normal controls. The low density of Purkinje cells in HD could not be attributed to aging, seizures, or cause of death, nor was it merely a part of a generalized brain atrophy. The loss of large Purkinje cells suggests that the neuronal loss in HD may not be restricted to small and medium-size neurons.[1]References
- Reduced Purkinje cell density in Huntington's disease. Jeste, D.V., Barban, L., Parisi, J. Exp. Neurol. (1984) [Pubmed]
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