Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome

Wilder, Linnea; Hanson, Kari L.; Lew, Caroline H.; Bellugi, Ursula; Semendeferi, Katerina

doi:10.3390/brainsci8120209

Open AccessArticle

Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome

by

Linnea Wilder

¹,

Kari L. Hanson

¹,

Caroline H. Lew

¹,

Ursula Bellugi

² and

Katerina Semendeferi

^1,*

¹

Department of Anthropology, Social Sciences Building Rm. 210, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0532, USA

²

Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Brain Sci. 2018, 8(12), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8120209

Submission received: 25 September 2018 / Revised: 22 November 2018 / Accepted: 27 November 2018 / Published: 29 November 2018

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Multi-Dimensional Contributions of Prefrontal Circuits to Emotion Regulation during Adulthood and Critical Stages of Development)

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Abstract

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a deletion of 25–28 genes on chromosome 7 and characterized by a specific behavioral phenotype, which includes hypersociability and anxiety. Here, we examined the density of neurons and glia in fourteen human brains in Brodmann area 25 (BA 25), in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), using a postmortem sample of five adult and two infant WS brains and seven age-, sex- and hemisphere-matched typically developing control (TD) brains. We found decreased neuron density, which reached statistical significance in the supragranular layers, and increased glia density and glia to neuron ratio, which reached statistical significance in both supra- and infragranular layers. Combined with our previous findings in the amygdala, caudate nucleus and frontal pole (BA 10), these results in the vmPFC suggest that abnormalities in frontostriatal and frontoamygdala circuitry may contribute to the anxiety and atypical social behavior observed in WS.

Keywords: Williams Syndrome; neuron density; glia density; ventromedial prefrontal cortex

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MDPI and ACS Style

Wilder, L.; Hanson, K.L.; Lew, C.H.; Bellugi, U.; Semendeferi, K. Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome. Brain Sci. 2018, 8, 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8120209

AMA Style

Wilder L, Hanson KL, Lew CH, Bellugi U, Semendeferi K. Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome. Brain Sciences. 2018; 8(12):209. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8120209

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wilder, Linnea, Kari L. Hanson, Caroline H. Lew, Ursula Bellugi, and Katerina Semendeferi. 2018. "Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome" Brain Sciences 8, no. 12: 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8120209

APA Style

Wilder, L., Hanson, K. L., Lew, C. H., Bellugi, U., & Semendeferi, K. (2018). Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome. Brain Sciences, 8(12), 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8120209

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Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome

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