There is a process whereby neurons can adapt to and regain plasticity while the local biochemical environment is changing due to the application of antidepressants. Thus, the long-term mode of action of antidepressant medication seems much more dynamic and complex than just up- or downregulation of synaptic levels of monoamines. The

role of the hippocampus The hippocampus is a well-characterized Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical brain structure. In 1886 G Golgi stained hippocampal neurons with his novel silver impregnation technique, which became known as the Golgi procedure. Since then a great number of neuropsychiatrie phenomena have been studied in the hippocampal formation. The relatively- simple organization – pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus proper and the granule cells of the dentate gyrus are Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical arranged in single, densely packed cell layers – is one of

the major reasons why the hippocampus has frequently been used as a cytoarchitectural model of the cortex. Recent findings in volumetric neuroimaging studies make a strong case that biochemical changes in the brain carry morphological sequels. So far we have learned that gray matter volumes are selleck products diminished in depressed patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and in post-traumatic stress disorder patients in the medial and orbital prefrontal cortex, the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mesiotemporal cortex, and the ventral striatum, and are accompanied by an enlargement of the third and the lateral ventricles.30-33 Hippocampal gray matter volume is reduced strikingly in depressed patients.34,35 Additional postmortem brain studies underpin the abovementioned results. According to Vincent et al36 there is a layer-specific reduction of interneurons in the anterior cingulate cortex. Significant reduction in numbers Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of nonpyramidal neurons in the CA2 area of hippocampus was reported in postmortem studies of bipolar disorder.37 Also in regions other than hippocampus, there may be a decline in brain region volume and total cell number.38,39 Elevation

of Cortisol levels in the elderly correlates with reduced hippocampal volume, and is associated with memory deficits.40 Patients with depression have a functional deficit of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal Resminostat (FIFA) axis.41 Hippocampal neurons are reported to be damaged by exposure to stress or activation of the IIPA axis and elevation of glucocorticoids. Taken together, this overview of morphologic evidence strongly supports a functional link between changes at the molecular levels and morphology. The task of future research could be to develop strategies allowing the diseased hippocampus or other affected brain structures to regain regular morphology and function.