Abstract
The article examines the morphometric parameters (the area of neuronal pericarya and their nuclei, as well as the nucleocytoplasmic ratio) describing the metabolic activity of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM), tuberomamillary (TMN) nucleus, and medial mammillary (MMN) nucleus of the human hypothalamus in four age groups. A reliable enlargement has been found in the size of neurons and their nuclei in elderly people. Increases in the metabolic activity of neurons in the NBM begin earlier than in the TMN and MMN and are morphologically manifested in middle-aged persons. The age-related metabolic activation of neurons in the studied human brain structures, which participate in the regulation of memory and other cognitive functions, can be attributed to defensive and adaptive and/or compensatory mechanisms in aging that target prevention of the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Original Russian Text © T.A. Ishunina, 2015, published in Uspekhi Gerontologii, 2015, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 37–41.
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Ishunina, T.A. Sizes of neuronal nuclei and pericarya in the nucleus basalis of Meynert and the posterior hypothalamus in different age groups. Adv Gerontol 5, 117–120 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S207905701502006X
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S207905701502006X