Morphological Characteristics of the Ventrolateral Thalamic Nuclear Group of the Human Diencephalon

Rykhlik S. V.

MORPHOLOGY

Scentific article

A high demand for human brain morphological characteristics stems not only from the strong need for medical background knowledge but also from great number of practical problems of clinical medicine. Evalu- ation data for neuron-glia-capillary relationship in the ventrolateral nuclear group of the human thalamus can be applied for verification of diagnosis in the pathological practice as well as in neurosurgery in case of performing of operating procedures on subcortical structures of the brain. The brain functional status is determined by neuron activity, condition and number of capillaries, which play the prominent role in brain trophism by providing proper blood supply. The normal trophism and functioning of the brain is also provided by morphofunctional interaction of glial cells with neurons. The aim of the work was to analyze peculiarities of histoarchitectonics in the human ventrolateral thalamic nucle- ar group in people with different age and gender. The study was performed on thalami obtained from 31 individuals aged 30-87 years (total number of slides – 3050). At the first step in the research process there were determined the borders of ventrolateral group of thalamic nuclei. It was established that the mean linear dimensions of ventrolateral group of thalamic nuclei were (9,3 1,5) mm in width, (16,1 1,2) mm in height, and (14,3 1,1) mm in length. At the second step there were analyzed histoarchitectonics peculiarities of neuron-glia-capillary relationship depending on sex, side of the brain, and the length of the intercommissure line, were examined the morphological characteristics of blood vasculature especially its microcirculatory bed as well as neurons, and glial cells. It was esti- mated the rate of protein synthesis in neurons in six age groups (from 30 till 89 years old), as well as the age-related changes in the neuron-glia-capillary system. It was revealed that there was a negative correlation between the density of neurons and the age and this inter- action was close to functional because the correlation coefficient r was equal to -0,94. As for capillary density and age there was also found out a strong negative correlation, correlation coefficient r was equal to -0,87. For glial cells density and age the correlation coefficient was positive (r was equal to 0, 88) that indicated the increase of glial cells density with growing age. On the ground of morphological and morphometric data it was revealed the progressive decrease in distribution density, number and size of the neural cells, a reduced amount of Nissl substance, dystrophy and degeneration of neurons, a build-up of lipofuscin in them, a reduced protein synthesis function, increased amount of glial cells, the capillary network reduction, the polymorphism of endothelial cells with growing age. There were detected the same changes in the parameters of neuron-glia-capillary relationship in ventrolateral group of thalamic nuclei in both sexes with growing age whereas the difference lied in the rate of these changes. The parameters changed greater in men than in women. There were also absent statistically significant differences in density of neural cells, glial cells, and capillaries in relation to the right or left side of the brain. Studying the interactions of density of neural cells, glial cells, and capillaries in ventrolateral group of thalamic nuclei it was determined that these interactions are well described by linear equations that could be applied in prog- nostic estimates of possible relation of cellular components in individuals with different age.

ventrolateral group of nuclei of thalamus, neuron-glia-capillary relationship

«Bulletin of problems biology and medicine» Issue 4 part 1 (113), 2014 year, 285-289 pages, index UDK 611. 814. 7