Stereological analysis of cholinergic neurons within bilateral pedunculopontine nuclei in health and when affected by Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT: During Parkinson's disease (PD), loss of brainstem-based pedunculopontine nucleus' (PPN) cholinergic neurons induces progressive postural-gait disability (PGD). PPN-deep brain stimulation inconsistently alleviates PGD, due to stereotactic targeting inaccuracies resulting from insufficiently detailed human PPN anatomical descriptions. Relatedly, rodent studies show rostro-caudal clustering of PPN-cholinergic neurons, reflecting functional sub-territories. We applied unbiased cerebro-bilateral 3-dimensional (3-D) stereology to post-mortem PPNs from PD versus neurological-control cases, to estimate total numbers of cholinergic neurons and describe their rostro-caudal distribution. Given ambiguous descriptions of the PPN's confines, we utilized two complimentary definitions of the PPN's anatom

SUBMITTER: Sharma PK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12352924 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature