STEREOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HUMAN CEREBELLAR GRANULE CELLS IN DEVELOPING BRAIN

Abstract

The aim of this investigation was to determine the numerical density of human cerebellar granule cells in three different parts of cerebellar cortex i.e. hemispherium, vermis and flocculus. Stereological analysis of human cerebellar granule cells was performed at various stages of fetal development (15 th to 31 st gestation week) and one brain of a six day-old newborn. The brains were fixed in formalin, embedded in paraffin and cut in frontal plane in 6,15, and 30 µm. The slices were stained with Cresyl-violet. Each fifth slice was analyzed using the light microscope, and numerical density of granule cell nuclei was performed by point counting method using multipurpose test system M42. The total of test fields was counted in each stage. The analysis of the obtained value for the numerical density of the nerve cell nuclei indicates a constant increase during development in all investigate parts of the cerebellar cortex.

Keywords

• human development
• cerebellum
• granule cell
• stereology