Morphology of the Aging Brain, Human and Animal

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This chapter reviews the pathological changes found in the brains of old humans and animals and discusses which of them should be considered responsible for the deterioration of function. Biopsy and autopsy material from patients with and without senile dementia and from younger people with the diagnosis of Alzheimer's presenile dementia is included. The animal material consisted of five dogs, 15 to 18 years old, and four Rhesus monkeys aged 15 to 24 years. Most of the tissue comprised samples taken from frontal and hippocampal cortex. Even a superficial look at the life span of different animals indicates that there are some general phenomena that set a ceiling on the longevity of each animal species. One might consider that the aged cell is an environment in which certain pathological changes can readily develop. In conclusion, the morphological data indicate that studies of neuronal fibrous protein and synaptic pathology with special emphasis on mitochondria are the most urgent problems facing neuro-gerontologists.

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