Ratio between glia cell number and neuron number in brain

Range 10 - 50 unitless
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Herculano-Houzel S, Mota B, Lent R. Cellular scaling rules for rodent brains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Aug 8 103(32):12138-43. p.12138 left column 3rd paragraphPubMed ID16880386
Primary Source Kandel, E., Schwartz, J. & Jessel, T. (2000) Principles of Neural Science (McGraw–Hill, New York) 4th Ed., p. 20
Comments P.12138 left column 3rd paragraph: "Glia are said to be the most numerous cell type in the brain (refs 4, 5) and to be 10–50 times more numerous than neurons in humans (primary source). Evidence for this assertion, however, is scant. The ratio between the total number of glial and neuronal cells (glia/neuron ratio) in the cerebral cortex has been shown to increase with brain size (1, 7). However, the numeric expansion of glial cells relative to neurons seems to contradict the observation that the neuronal need for metabolic support remains similar across species (8). Data on how neuronal and glial cell sizes scale with brain size might help solve this discrepancy, but such data are lacking in the literature."
Entered by Uri M
ID 110874