Size of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses of hippocampal size have indicated that this structure is smaller in schizophrenia. This could reflect a reduction in the size of constituent neurons or a reduced number of neurons. AIMS: To measure the size of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in the brains of people with and without schizophrenia. METHOD: Pyramidal neuron size in hippocampal subfields was estimated stereologically from sections taken at 5 mm intervals throughout the whole length of right and left hippocampi from the brains of 13 people with schizophrenia and 16 controls. Results were assessed using repeated-measures analysis of covariance looking for a main effect of diagnosis and gender, and interactions of these with side. RESULTS: We were unable to detect significant differences related to diagnosis, gender or side for any hippocampal subfield for this series of cases. CONCLUSIONS: For this series of brains, hippocampal cell size is unchanged in schizophrenia.