Fig. 7.

Photomicrographs of Nissl stained sections from the hippocampus of a depressed patient (a, b), a steroid-treated patient (c, d) and a control subject (e, f). b, d, f Shows the CA3 area of the same patients at higher magnification. Although some rare apoptotic cells (brown TUNEL-positive cells indicated by arrows in g and h, compared to intact, non stained neuronal nuclei nearby (arrowhead)) were seen outside of subregions predicted to be at risk for glucocorticoid overexposure like the dentate gyrus or entorhinal cortex, no morphological evidence for neuronal damage or massive cell loss was observed in any of the groups. Bar indicates 710 μm in (a) and 45 μm in (b). Reproduced, with permission, from [117, 142]