Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
4th International Congress of Medical and Health Sciences Studies, Ankara, Türkiye, 13 - 14 Aralık 2025, ss.121, (Özet Bildiri)
Histomorphometric analysis of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) is essential for understanding the cellular and structural responses that occur following peripheral nerve injury. As the primary site of sensory neuron cell bodies, the DRG undergoes significant morphological and quantitative changes following injuries such as compression, crush, or transection. These alterations include reorganization of intracellular organelles, changes in neuronal and satellite cell morphology, changes in metabolic activity, and the emergence of phagocytic behavior in glial cells. Stereological analysis is gold standard in quantitative analysis of DRG tissue to estimate neuron number, size and volumetric alterations of the entire organ.
A combination of the physical disector and fractionator methods is a suitable approach to estimate the total number of sensory neurons in rat DRG tissues. Consecutive 2-μm sections sampled at 50-μm intervals can be analyzed, using the nucleolus as a reliable counting marker. Neurons can be identified and counted when the nucleolus is present in the reference section but absent in the look-up section (ΣQ⁻), and the total neuron number can be calculated using the formula N = ΣQ⁻ × 1/f. Cavalieri principle is the suitable method for estimation of DRG volume, in which cross-sectional area is determined by point counting (ΣP × a(p)) and then multiplied by section thickness to obtain total volume. Sensory neuron soma volume can be assessed by measuring the perikaryon diameter in neurons with visible nucleoli. Light and dark-type sensory neurons need to be evaluated separately using point grids optimized for their respective sizes.
Keywords: dorsal root ganglion, histomorphological analysis, disector, volume estimation