Morphological and morphometric changes in the Purkinje cells of patients with essential tremor

Mavroudis,Ioannis; Kazis,Dimitrios; Petridis,Foivos; Chatzikonstantinou,Simela; Karantali,Eleni; Njau,Samuel N.; Costa,Vasiliki; Ciobica,Alin; Trus,Constantin; Balmus,Ioana Miruna; Baloyannis,Stavros J.

doi:10.3892/etm.2021.11090

Morphological and morphometric changes in the Purkinje cells of patients with essential tremor

Authors:
- Ioannis Mavroudis
- Dimitrios Kazis
- Foivos Petridis
- Simela Chatzikonstantinou
- Eleni Karantali
- Samuel N. Njau
- Vasiliki Costa
- Alin Ciobica
- Constantin Trus
- Ioana Miruna Balmus
- Stavros J. Baloyannis
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Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, NHS Trust, Leeds, LS1 3EX, United Kingdom, Third Department of Neurology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece, Laboratory of Neuropathology and Electron Microscopy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece, Department of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi 700506, Romania, Department of Morphological and Functional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dunarea de Jos University, Galati 800008, Romania, Department of Exact Sciences and Natural Sciences, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Iași 700057, Romania
Published online on: December 23, 2021 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.11090
Article Number: 167
Copyright: © Mavroudis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Essential tremor (ET) is a progressive neurological syndrome characterised by involuntary tremors of the hands or arms, head, jaw and voice. The pathophysiology of ET is not clearly understood yet. However, previous studies have reported several changes in the brain of patients with ET. One of the brain areas extensively investigated is the cerebellum. In the present study, a morphometric analysis of Purkinje cells in patients with ET and ET‑plus was performed, and subsequently compared with normal controls using the Golgi silver staining method and 3D neuronal reconstruction. Substantial morphological changes were uncovered in the Purkinje cells of patients with ET compared with normal controls, including a decreased dendritic length and field density, an overall loss of terminal branches and a decreased density of dendritic spines.

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