Table 2.
Morphological rating of GFAP+ astrocytes in the midbrain during normal aging.
| Region |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age Group |
Animal # |
Age (yrs) |
vtSN | dtSN | VTA |
| Young | 7043 | 9 | − | − | − |
| 7044 | 9 | − | − | − | |
| 6480 | 10 | − | − | − | |
|
| |||||
| Middle | 7048 | 14 | − | − | − |
| 7080 | 14 | + | + | + | |
| 7050 | 15 | ++ | + | + | |
| 7049 | 15 | + | + | − | |
| 7108 | 16 | − | − | − | |
| 7109 | 17 | − | − | − | |
|
| |||||
| Old | 7007 | 22 | − | − | − |
| 7088 | 22 | − | − | − | |
| 7089 | 22 | − | − | − | |
| 7092 | 24 | − | − | − | |
| 6257 | 29 | − | − | − | |
(−) indicates resting astrocytes characterized by little cytoplasmic staining and long thin light-moderately stained processes emanating from the cell body
(+) indicates numerous astrocytes in an intermediate hypertrophic state characterized by increased cytoplasmic staining and thicker darker processes emanating from the cell body
(++) indicates numerous fully hypertrophic astrocytes characterized by increased cell body size with intense staining and shorter thick intensely stained processes emanating from the cell body