Brain Morphology Post Mortem

- Cytochemistry

Brain material that has been obtained at autopsy of previously neuropsychiatric healthy or non-healthy subjects after the consent of the relatives is prepared using standardized methods for different types of analyses. One process that has been used successfully at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience is cryosectioning of whole hemispheres for use in histochemistry, ligand autoradiography or in situ hybridization histochemistry.

Histochemistry
Representative cryosections are analyzed using various staining techniques (e.g. Nissl staining, i.e. cresyl violet staining) and histochemical techniques to differentiate gray and white matter and the neuron density in all brain regions. Specific nerve cell groups can also be visualized using different types of immunohistochemical methods.

Photographic imaging
During the whole hemisphere sectioning each section is video photographed to a high resolution to allow the visualization of the structural differences in the brain between different individuals. The system is complementary to the histological techniques, and is also used in the 3D reconstruction of the post mortem morphology and biochemistry from a large number of consecutive sections.

Domain responsible: Håkan Hall

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Read more about Håkan Hall
Read more about the research project (Post Mortem Brain Studies)