Cellular pathology within the anterior cingulate cortex of patients with late-life depression: a morphometric study.

Previous imaging and morphometric studies have identified volumetric and cellular abnormalities in prefrontal areas in late-life depression. This study aimed to examine cellular morphology using stereological methodology in the supragenual region of the anterior cingulate cortex in late-life depressed patients compared with age-matched controls. Post-mortem tissue was acquired from nine patients with depression and 11 control patients and analyzed using the optical disector and nucleator methods.