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Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism

Neuropathological studies, using a variety of techniques, have reported a decrease in Purkinje cell (PC) density in the cerebellum in autism. We have used a systematic sampling technique that significantly reduces experimenter bias and variance to estimate PC densities in the postmortem brains of ei...

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Autores principales: Skefos, Jerry, Cummings, Christopher, Enzer, Katelyn, Holiday, Jarrod, Weed, Katrina, Levy, Ezra, Yuce, Tarik, Kemper, Thomas, Bauman, Margaret
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24586223
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081255
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author Skefos, Jerry
Cummings, Christopher
Enzer, Katelyn
Holiday, Jarrod
Weed, Katrina
Levy, Ezra
Yuce, Tarik
Kemper, Thomas
Bauman, Margaret
author_facet Skefos, Jerry
Cummings, Christopher
Enzer, Katelyn
Holiday, Jarrod
Weed, Katrina
Levy, Ezra
Yuce, Tarik
Kemper, Thomas
Bauman, Margaret
author_sort Skefos, Jerry
collection PubMed
description Neuropathological studies, using a variety of techniques, have reported a decrease in Purkinje cell (PC) density in the cerebellum in autism. We have used a systematic sampling technique that significantly reduces experimenter bias and variance to estimate PC densities in the postmortem brains of eight clinically well-documented individuals with autism, and eight age- and gender-matched controls. Four cerebellar regions were analyzed: a sensorimotor area comprised of hemispheric lobules IV–VI, crus I & II of the posterior lobe, and lobule X of the flocculonodular lobe. Overall PC density was thus estimated using data from all three cerebellar lobes and was found to be lower in the cases with autism as compared to controls, an effect that was most prominent in crus I and II (p<0.05). Lobule X demonstrated a trend towards lower PC density in only the males with autism (p = 0.05). Brain weight, a correlate of tissue volume, was found to significantly contribute to the lower lobule X PC density observed in males with autism, but not to the finding of lower PC density in crus I & II. Therefore, lower crus I & II PC density in autism is more likely due to a lower number of PCs. The PC density in lobule X was found to correlate with the ADI-R measure of the patient's use of social eye contact (R(2) = −0.75, p = 0.012). These findings support the hypothesis that abnormal PC density may contribute to selected clinical features of the autism phenotype.
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spelling pubmed-39333332014-02-25 Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism Skefos, Jerry Cummings, Christopher Enzer, Katelyn Holiday, Jarrod Weed, Katrina Levy, Ezra Yuce, Tarik Kemper, Thomas Bauman, Margaret PLoS One Research Article Neuropathological studies, using a variety of techniques, have reported a decrease in Purkinje cell (PC) density in the cerebellum in autism. We have used a systematic sampling technique that significantly reduces experimenter bias and variance to estimate PC densities in the postmortem brains of eight clinically well-documented individuals with autism, and eight age- and gender-matched controls. Four cerebellar regions were analyzed: a sensorimotor area comprised of hemispheric lobules IV–VI, crus I & II of the posterior lobe, and lobule X of the flocculonodular lobe. Overall PC density was thus estimated using data from all three cerebellar lobes and was found to be lower in the cases with autism as compared to controls, an effect that was most prominent in crus I and II (p<0.05). Lobule X demonstrated a trend towards lower PC density in only the males with autism (p = 0.05). Brain weight, a correlate of tissue volume, was found to significantly contribute to the lower lobule X PC density observed in males with autism, but not to the finding of lower PC density in crus I & II. Therefore, lower crus I & II PC density in autism is more likely due to a lower number of PCs. The PC density in lobule X was found to correlate with the ADI-R measure of the patient's use of social eye contact (R(2) = −0.75, p = 0.012). These findings support the hypothesis that abnormal PC density may contribute to selected clinical features of the autism phenotype. Public Library of Science 2014-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3933333/ /pubmed/24586223 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081255 Text en © 2014 Skefos et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Skefos, Jerry
Cummings, Christopher
Enzer, Katelyn
Holiday, Jarrod
Weed, Katrina
Levy, Ezra
Yuce, Tarik
Kemper, Thomas
Bauman, Margaret
Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism
title Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism
title_full Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism
title_fullStr Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism
title_full_unstemmed Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism
title_short Regional Alterations in Purkinje Cell Density in Patients with Autism
title_sort regional alterations in purkinje cell density in patients with autism
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24586223
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081255
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