Size of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in schizophrenia.

Journal article

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses of hippocampal size have indicated that this structure is smaller in schizophrenia. This could reflect a reduction in the size of constituent neurons or a reduced number of neurons. AIMS: To measure the size of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in the brains of people with and without schizophrenia. METHOD: Pyramidal neuron size in hippocampal subfields was estimated stereologically from sections taken at 5 mm intervals throughout the whole length of right and left hippocampi from the brains of 13 people with schizophrenia and 16 controls. Results were assessed using repeated-measures analysis of covariance looking for a main effect of diagnosis and gender, and interactions of these with side. RESULTS: We were unable to detect significant differences related to diagnosis, gender or side for any hippocampal subfield for this series of cases. CONCLUSIONS: For this series of brains, hippocampal cell size is unchanged in schizophrenia.

Authors: Highley, JR; Walker, M; McDonald, B; Crow, T; Esiri, M

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
• Volume: 183
• Issue: NOV.
• Pages: 414-417
• Publication date: 2003-11-01
• DOI: 10.1192/bjp.183.5.414
• EISSN: 1472-1465
• ISSN: 0007-1250
• Language: English
• Keywords: Sex Factors; Schizophrenia; Humans; Male; Cell Size; Female; Middle Aged; Pyramidal Cells; Hippocampus; Analysis of Variance