Cellular composition of rodent brains

Range Table- link
Organism Rodent
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. Supporting information table 2PubMed ID16880386
Method "[Researchers] use the isotropic fractionator (16), a nonstereological method, to determine total numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and remaining areas of the brain and to examine how they scale across six species of the same order, Rodentia, from mouse to the giant Amazonian capybara."
Comments "Neuronal density scales less steeply than neuronal number across brains of different sizes. Although the latter increases 23 times from the mouse to the capybara, neuronal density in all structures decreases by a factor <10-fold. An even more marked difference is observed for nonneuronal cells, whose 86-fold increase in number from the mouse to the capybara is accompanied by a modest decrease in nonneuronal cell density of ˜2-fold (see Table 2 and Supporting Appendix, which are published as supporting information on the PNAS web site). This difference in the steepness of scaling between neuronal and nonneuronal cells indicates that the latter vary much less in size than do neuronal cells across species, a possibility that [researchers] addressed next." See notes beneath table
Entered by Uri M
ID 110877