Image of the Month

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Volume 8, Issues 2 and 3 : Golgi stain motif of a cerebellar Purkinge cell, by Peter J. Snyder (based on an original drawing by Santiago Ramón y Cajal ([1852 - 1934]). Spalted maple vessel with copper leaf and pyrography. This image shows a close-up portion of the larger vessel, dimensions 18" X 8" diameter. Second in a series depicting specialized cells within the central nervous system. Neuritic and diffuse plaques, that are the hallmark histologic correlates of Alzheimer's disease, are seen in far smaller proportion in the cerebellum, in comparison to the cortex. Nonetheless, the use of the Golgi impregnation technique reveals a loss of Purkinje cells—as well as a marked decrease in the density of dendritic arborization—awithin the cerebellum of patients with Alzheimer's disease.


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Volume 8, Issue 1: The cerebellum is generally considered to be spared in Alzheimer's disease and is often used as a "control" for studies that focus on other brain regions. Accumulating evidence, however, suggests its involvement in later stages of the disease, by which time the cerebellar cortex contains diffuse amyloid deposits. DNA damage and cell cycle anomalies are also found in both Purkinje cells and the neurons of the deep nuclei. The image shown is a field of Purkinje cells from an individual who died with late-stage Alzheimer's disease; the material has been stained with a phospho-specific antibody against P-S1981-ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated). This particular epitope marks the catalytically active form of the ATM induced by DNA damage or oxidative stress. This image is provided as a courtesy by Drs. Karl Herrup and Jianmin Chen.


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Volume 7, Issues 5 and 6: Golgi stain of pyramidal cells motif, by Peter J. Snyder. Fiddleback maple vessel with copper leaf and pyrography. A portion of the rim of a vessel, dimensions: 6.5" X 7" diameter. First in a series depicting specialized cells within the central nervous system. Pyramidal cells are found throughout the cortex (especially in layers III and V), and in the hippocampus and amygdala. First discovered by the Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) in the late 19th century, these neurons are important for the synthesis and higher-order processing of information (cognition) mediated by the prefrontal cortex. The ability of these cells to integrate information depends on the number and distribution of the synaptic inputs they receive. A single pyramidal cell may receive about 30,000 excitatory inputs and about 1700 inhibitory (IPSPs) inputs.


Cover Image
Volume 7, Issues 3 and 4: The image shows a field of mouse neurons dissociated from the embryonic cortex and grown in culture for 15 days. The interconnecting network of neuronal processes can be seen in green, which represents immunostaining for the MAP2 protein. Neurons are normally non-mitotic cells. To visualize cell division in the culture, the DNA precursor and thymidine analog, BrdU, was added to the culture on the 14th day. BrdU uptake into DNA is visualized by its red immunofluorescence. DAPI (blue) is a DNA dye and serves as a nuclear counterstain. Note that the BrdU is incorporated only into the nuclei of non-neuronal cells (MAP2-negative). But a few neurons show BrdU speckles in their cytoplasm, probably representing mitochondrial DNA synthesis. The image was provided through the courtesy of Dr. Jianmin Chen.