Stereological quantification of the cerebellum in patients with Alzheimer's disease

The human cerebellum divided in the vermical midline. The vermis is painted orange, the anterior lobe painted blue, and the posterior lobe left uncolored. The scale bar = 5 cm.

The volume of the cerebellar subcompartments is estimated by randomly placing a point-counting grid on the cut surface of each slab. The area per point, a(p), is the area associated with each point on the test grid and the sum of P is the total number of points on the test grid hitting the tissue of interest. A test grid with a(p) = 16 mm² was used for the white matter, vermis, and anterior and posterior lobe. The volume of a layer is the volume fraction of the layer multiplied by the cortical volume. The scale bar = 5 cm.

To the left an illustration of the molecular layer, the Purkinje cell layer, the granule layer, and the cerebellar white matter. The scale bar = 600 μm. In the center the granule cell layer with 2 counting frames. The scale bar = 10 μm. To the right the characteristically large Purkinje cells at 60× magnification. The Purkinje cells have a clear nucleus with a deeply stained nucleolus and irregular Nissl granules. Notice the multibranched dendrites projecting into the molecular layer. There are no qualitative histological differences between the Alzheimer's disease (AD) group and the control group. The scale bar = 10 μm.

The total number of Purkinje cells in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and control subjects. The p value is 0.23.

The total number of granula cells in the Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects compared with control subject. The p value is 0.35.