STABILITY OF CELL-SIZE AND NUCLEOLAR SIZE IN LEWY BODY CONTAINING NEURONS OF SUBSTANTIA-NIGRA IN PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Samples of 9 brains of autopsied patients suffering from Parkinson's d isease were examined. In H gr E stained 20 mu m thick sections of subs tantia nigra 10 Lewy body containing and 20 unaffected pigmented nerve cells of substantia nigra per case were measured for size of the peri karya and nucleolar size utilizing an interactive image processing uni t. In affected cells the size of Lewy bodies was measured too. There w as no significant difference in the size of the perikarya and nucleola r size between affected and unaffected cells. In Lewy body bearing cel ls nucleolar size was not correlated with the size of the Lewy bodies. There was a significant negative correlation between nucleolar size o f substantia nigra neurons and the duration of the disease. Since nucl eolar volume can serve as indicator of RNA synthesis of a cell, Lewy b odies do not seem to disturb nerve cell metabolism.