Aging in the vestibular nuclear complex of the male golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus): anatomic and morphometric study
J.A. Fernández1, C. Suárez2, A. Navarro3, C. Díaz4, J.C. Alvarez5, C. González del Rey6 and J. Tolivia3
1Service of Otorrinolaringology of the Burela Coast Hospital, Lugo, Spain, 2Service of Otorrinolaringology of the Asturias Central Hospital, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, 3Department of Morphology and Cellular Biology, University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, 4Service of Otorrinolaringology of the San Agustín Hospital, Avilés, Asturias, Spain, 5Service of Otorrinolaringology of the Cabueñes Hospital, Gijón, Asturias, Spain and 6Service of Anatomy Pathologic of the Virgin of the Shell Hospital, Zamora, Spain
Offprint requests to: Dr. Jorge Tolivia Fernández, Dpto. Morfología y Biología Celular, 8ª Planta Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, c/ Julián Clavería s/n, 33006 Oviedo, Spain. e-mail: jtolivia@correo.uniovi.es
Summary. To study the effects of senescence on the vestibular nuclear complex twenty brainstems from male golden hamsters between 3 and 27 months-old were used and the possible variations in the number of neurons, neuronal morphology and nuclear volume were studied. The neuron profiles were drawn with a camera lucida and Abercrombie's method was used to estimate the total number of neurons. The test of Kolmogorov-Smirnov with the correction of Lilliefors was used to evaluate the fit of our data to a normal distribution and a regression analysis was done to decide if the variation of our data with age was statistically significant. The results of the present study are relevant only for male animals and the effect of senescence could be different in female vestibular nuclear complex. Aging affects the volume of the superior and lateral vestibular nuclei, as well as the nuclear neuronal diameter of the medial vestibular nucleus, but no significant neuronal loss has been appreciated in vestibular nuclear complex related with age. During the aging process we have observed that the distribution of neurons within the vestibular nuclei of the golden hamster does not show important changes and most of their morphometric parameters do not vary significantly. Histol Histopathol 22, 855-868 (2007)
Key words: Vestibular nuclei, Neuroanatomy, Neuron, Morphometry, Aging
DOI: 10.14670/HH-22.855