On the fine structure of the small,heavily pigmented non-pyramidal cells in lamina II and upper lamina III of the human isocortex

Summary With the aid of a newly developed technique for the successive examination of both the Golgi and pigment picture of individual neurons (Braak, 1974a) Braak (1974b) demonstrated that within lamina II and upper lamina III of the human isocortex, heavily pigmented non-pyramidal cells are distributed irregularly and sparsely. The lipofuscin pigment granules serve as excellent internal markers to identify these non-pyramidal cells in ultrathin sections. This favourable circumstance facilitates the study of these interneurons in the electron microscope.The heavily pigmented non-pyramidal cells are small, spherical to ovoid with diameters of about 12–15 m. One pole of the cell comprising a large cytoplasmic area gives rise to a few dendrites, while the other pole is occupied by the nucleus and in some cases is in close apposition to another nerve cell body. The nucleus is deeply invaginated by the large cytoplasmic area and occasionally displays nuclear inclusions. Among the usual organelles distributed within the large cytoplasmic area the mitochondria with a moderately electron dense matrix are abundant and the coarse lipofuscin pigment granules are the most striking elements. The latter contain densely packed filamentous or tubular material and a single vacuole. The perikaryon rarely receives more than 3 type I and type II synapses per section per cell, whereas the dendrites receive numerous synapses of both type I and type II. Within the apposition zone to another nerve cell body (which in no case is a heavily pigmented non-pyramidal cell) puncta adhaerentia occur and also contacts in which the cleft of 8 nm is intersected by a dense stratum.Some of the ultrastructural findings are summarized in the schematic drawing of Figure 15.