Korneeva M.*, Siamionik I.*, Filipovich T.*, Rjabceva S.*, Nedzvedz M.**, Guzov S.**
*Centre of electron and light microscopy, Institute of Physiology of National Academy Science of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus
**Department of Pathology, Belarusian State Medical University, Minsk, Belarus
Toufik’s Medical Journal
Volume 1, Supplement 1, November 2021
Abstract from Biomedical Perspectives III
Introduction: Alcohol-related brain damage describes the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on human brain structure and function in the absence of neurological concomitants of alcoholism such as Wernicke encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome.
Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze astrocyte cell density (ACD), astrocytes cell body area (ACBA) and pial glial “membrane” thickness in cortical layer I of the brain of patients with chronic alcohol-related brain damage (ChARBD).
Materials and methods: A postmortem examination of the neocortex of the frontal and temp lobes of patients (3 patients with ChARBD and 4 patients without brain diseases) was carried out. The immunohistochemical marker GFAP was used. The count glial cell (at least 100 cells in each cortical layer) in non-overlapping fields at high power magnification (x400) was performed. The area of one field was 66585.8 mm2. The pial glial “membrane” thickness, ACD and AACB was analyzed using ImageJ. The nonparametric Mann-Withey test was done.
Results: The average age of patients with ChARBD was 64.0±8.8 years. The average age of patients without chronic alcohol intoxication was 62.5±6.0 years (p=0.69). The pial glial “membrane” was detected as a thick network of strong GFAP-positive fibers in subpial zone of neocortex. The pial glial “membrane” thickness in neocortex in patients with ChARBD was increased by 1.8 times compared to patients without this disease (11.38 [8.90;12.41] µm versus 6.44 [5.25;7.76] µm, p=0.0000). The ACD in cortical layer I in patients with ChARBD was increased by 1.8 times (231.26 [193.96;313.32] cells/mm2 versus 126.82 [104.44;149.20] cells/mm2, p=0.0000). The ACBA in cortical layer I in patients with ChARBD was increased by 1.1 times compared to patients without this disease (57.75 [47.49;73.69] µm2 versus 51.72 [41.67;64.66] µm2, p=0.0038).
Conclusion: Interlaminar astrocytes in neocortex of patients with chronic alcohol-related brain damage were characterized by increased cell density, hypertrophy cell bodies and an increase in number of short processes in subpial zone.