Increased Neuronal Nuclear and Perikaryal Size in the Medial Mamillary Nucleus of Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Patients: Relation to Nuclear Estrogen Receptor α.

Background: The hypothalamic medial mamillary (MMN) and the tuberomamillary (TMN) nuclei are important hubs in memory circuits. Previous studies determining the neuronal Golgi complex size showed decreased metabolic activity of the TMN neurons in both Alzhei-mer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD), and no obvious decline in the MMN of these patients.

Objectives: In the present study, we aimed at determining whether other morphometric parameters that are informative about the neuronal metabolic activity are changed in the MMN of AD and VD patients and whether they can be related to the expression of the nuclear estrogen receptor α (ERα) that can mediate neurotrophic effects of estrogens in the brain.