Morphometric Analysis in Neurodegenerative Disorders

Golgi impregnation has been commonly used for neuronal morphometry in a number of neurological diseases and brain‐disorder studies. Introduced more than a century ago, it is still the standard and state‐of‐the‐art technique for visualization of neuronal architecture. We successfully applied the Golgi method to mouse, rat, monkey, and human brain tissues for studying both the normal and abnormal morphology of neurons. We were able to discover subtle morphological alterations in neuronal dendrites and dendritic spines in different brain areas. Although Golgi preparations can be examined by electronic microscopy, we used light microscopy and reconstruction using Neurolucida software to quantitatively explore the relationship between total dendritic length and spine density in different types of neurons. This unit summarizes the methodology used to quantify neuronal abnormalities and discusses the utility of these techniques in different models of neurodegeneration. Curr. Protoc. Toxicol. 46:12.16.1‐12.16.14.