Neuron death rate in Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta (SNC)

Range Parkinson patients ~12,000 - 43,000: no neurological disease ~3,300 neurons/year
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference McGeer PL, Itagaki S, Akiyama H, McGeer EG. Rate of cell death in parkinsonism indicates active neuropathological process. Ann Neurol. 1988 Oct24(4):574-6. DOI: 10.1002/ana.410240415 p.576 left column top paragraphPubMed ID3239957
Method P.574 right column bottom paragraph: "[Investigators] have carried out counts of dopaminergic cells being phagocytosed in representative sections of the SNC in groups of patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease and in control subjects dying in the hospital without clinical evidence of neurological disease (Table)."
Comments P.576 left column top paragraph: "There are about 400 sections of 30 µm thickness in the SNC. The data of the Table would therefore suggest cell losses in the range of 1,000 to 3,600 neurons in 4 weeks or about 12,000 to 43,000 per year. Clearly such losses could not be sustained over many years without total depletion of cells in the SNC. By contrast, Figure 1 indicates a cell loss of only about 3,300 cells per year in normal aging (route A), which would increase to about 5,000 to 6,000 cells per year if an accelerated aging process were taking place in Parkinson’s disease (route B)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 114821