Cellular pathology within the anterior cingulate cortex of patients with late-life depression: a morphometric study

Abstract

Previous imaging and morphometric studies have identified volumetric and cellular abnormalities in prefrontal areas in late-life depression. This study aimed to examine cellular morphology using stereological methodology in the supragenual region of the anterior cingulate cortex in late-life depressed patients compared with age-matched controls. Post-mortem tissue was acquired from nine patients with depression and 11 control patients and analyzed using the optical disector and nucleator methods. No changes were found in glial, non-pyramidal and pyramidal cell density, or in non-pyramidal or pyramidal cell volume within individual layers (2-5) or the supragenual anterior cortex as a whole. This study, therefore, does not provide further evidence for cellular abnormalities in late-life depression.