Total number of neurons and glial cells in human brain nuclei estimated by the disector and the fractionator
Abstract
Unbiased estimates of the total number of neurons and glial cells from central regions of grey matter in human brains are obtained using the disector principle in modifications which are unaffected by the histological processing of paraffin-embedded tissue. Section thickness does not enter into the estimator and need not be known. An analysis of the contributions from all sampling levels to the variance of the estimator of total cell number has been used to design an optimimal sampling scheme. Using this method, a precise and unbiased estimate of the total number of neurons in a defined brain region can be obtained in less than 1 h.
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The claim of 10 times more glial cells than neurons in the human brain holds only in subcortical nuclei such as the thalamus (17 glial cells per neuron) and ventral pallidum (12 glial cells per neuron).
“that seems to be the case only in subcortical nuclei such as the thalamus (17 glial cells per neuron) and the ventral pallidum (12 glial cells per neuron; Pakkenberg and Gundersen, 1988).”
From The human brain in numbers: a linearly scaled-up primate brain (2009) · cites this paper as Pakkenberg and Gundersen, 1988
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Herculano-Houzel, S. (2009) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/neuro.09.031.2009 · Cited by 1,778 · see citing works
“As to the 10 times more numerous glial cells in the human brain, that seems to be the case only in subcortical nuclei such as the thalamus (17 glial cells per neuron) and the ventral pallidum (12 glial cells per neuron; Pakkenberg and Gundersen, 1988).”
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- Authors
- Pakkenberg, B., & Gundersen, H. J. G.
- Affiliations
- Hvidovre Hospital (DK)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- ORCID
- Pakkenberg, B.
- Venue
- Journal of Microscopy
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1988-04
- Volume
- 150
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-20
- ISSN
- 0022-2720 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2818
- OpenAlex
- W1970930843
- Cited by
- 347
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 30.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Microscopy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Applied Mathematics › Point processes and geometric inequalities
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biophysics › Cell Image Analysis Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anatomy › Medical and Biological Sciences
- Keywords
- neuron number, glial cells, fractionator, grey matter, paraffin-embedded tissue, section thickness, sampling variance, optimal sampling design
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Cell Count, Chronic Disease, Cytological Techniques, Humans, Models, Theoretical, Neuroglia, Neurons, Reference Values, Schizophrenia
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