Neuropathological evaluation of the diencephalon, basal ganglia and upper brainstem in alobar holoprosencephaly.

Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is caused by the impaired cleavage of the embryonic prosencephalon, and in the severest type, alobar HPE, the normally bilateral diencephalon and basal ganglia are fused and tend to incorporate into the upper brainstem. The detailed neuropathological features of HPE remain to be elucidated, although disturbed regulation in body temperature and electrolyte balance are frequently observed. We immunohistologically examined the expression of hypothalamic hormones, neurotransmitters, calcium-binding proteins and neuropeptides in six female autopsy cases of alobar HPE.

[Requests from neuropathology to psychiatry: based on memoirs and prospect by a clinical neuropathologist].

The subjects for neuropathology up to now, such as degenerative brain diseases, developmental impairments and dementia, should remain to be the one for general psychiatry in correlation with medical service and welfare. Thus, the roles of neuropsychiatry are thought to be more important as a subspeciality of general psychiatry.

Peculiar form of cerebral microdysgenesis characterized by white matter neurons with perineuronal and perivascular glial satellitosis: A study using a variety of human autopsied brains.

Microdysgenesis (MD) is a neuropathological term that implies a variety of minor developmental abnormalities of the brain. Recently, MD has been used for pathological diagnosis of cerebral tissues surgically resected from epileptic patients. However, criteria or consensus on pathological diagnosis of MD is still vague and controversial because of the lack of control studies.

Neurodegenerative mechanisms in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is caused by persistent brain infection of mutated measles virus, showing inflammation, neuronal loss, and demyelination. We neuropathologically examined six autopsy cases of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, using in situ nick end-labeling and immunohistochemistry. Both the neurons and glial cells in the cerebral cortex showed immunoreactive nuclei in the nick end-labeling in two cases with disease duration within 2 years, whereas they were confined to the glial cells in the demyelinated cerebral white matter in three cases with disease duration ranging from 2 to 10 years.

Oxidative stress and disturbed glutamate transport in spinal muscular atrophy.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a hereditary motor neuron disease, and three clinical subtypes of autosomal recessive SMA, including Werdnig Hoffmann disease (type 1), have been shown to be induced by deletion within the same genes. In order to clarify the pathogenesis of motor neuron degeneration in SMA, we immunohistochemically examine the expressions of oxidative stress-related materials (oxidative products) and glutamate transporters, which can prevent glutamate neurotoxicity, in five autopsy cases of SMA type 1. Age-matched controls did not show any deposition of oxidative products in the brain.

Immunohistological study of globoid cell leukodystrophy.

We examined three autopsy cases of globoid cell leukodystrophy (GLD) with different survival, using immunohistochemistry and in situ nick end labeling (ISEL). The white matter lesion was pronounced in the corona radiata, corpus callosum and cerebellar peduncles in three cases, where a spongy state developed, in addition to the neuronal loss in the thalamus, cerebellum and inferior olivary nucleus. Ramified microglia, being immunoreactive for ferritin and HLA-DR alpha, were scattered in the white matter, and some of them also had immunoreactivity for TNF-alpha.