Morphometric characteristics of the neurons of the human subiculum proper

Abstract

The human subiculum is a significant part of the hippocampal formation positioned between the hippocampus proper and the entorhinal and other cortices. It plays an important role in spatial navigation, memory processing and control of the response to stress. The aim of our study was identification of the morphometric characteristics of the neurons of the human subiculum proper: the maximum length and width of cell body and total dendritic length and volume of cell body. Comparing the measured parameters of different types of subicular neurons (bipolar, multipolar, pyramidal neurons with triangular-shaped soma and neurons with oval-shaped soma), we can conclude that bipolar neurons have the lowest values of the measured parameters: the maximum length of their cell body is 14.1 ± 0.2 µm, the maximum width is 13.9 ± 0.5 µm, and total dendritic length is 14597 ± 3.1 µm. The lowest volume value was observed in bipolar neurons; the polymorphic layer is 1152.99 ± 662.69 µm3. The pyramidal neurons of the pyramidal layer have the highest value for the maximal length of the cell body (44.43 ± 7.94 µm), maximum width (23.64 ± 1.89 µm), total dendritic length (1830 ± 466.3 µm) and volume (11768.65±4004.9 µm3) These characteristics of the pyramidal neurons indicate their importance, because the axons of these neurons make up the greatest part of the fornix, along with the axons of neurons of the CA1 hippocampal field.

Keywords

• Neurons
• human subiculum
• hippocampal formation
• dendrites
• morphometry