A Golgi study of human locus coeruleus in normal brains and in Parkinson's disease

The locus coeruleus (LC) of eight adults without neurodegenerative disease and eight patients with Parkinson's disease was investigated by means of the Golgi‐Braitenberg method for formalin‐fixed human autopsy material. As with Golgi studies in the rat and cat, two main neuronal classes could be demonstrated in the human LC: (i) medium‐sized fusiform and multipolar LC neurons known to contain neuromelanin and (ii) smaller neurons of widely varying somatic shape and dendritic arborization which are considered to be intermingled neurons of adjacent brain stem nuclei not containing neuromelanin.

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