Hello,
Does anybody have a rough estimate of what a dopamine neuron would weigh please? I keep reading that a 'large sensory neuron' has a mass of 10E-6g, but I cannot find any reference to how it was calculated.
I would appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Diana
This is virtually imposible to know. You may estimate roughly the volume and then the aprox weight of the soma. But remember that these as Many other are projecting neurons meaning meaning that you hace to take all prolongations aNd ramificatíoks into account. I would be surprised if anybody has tried to guess total volume or weight for projecting neurons ( even for neurons,) may the large sensory neuron be the exception?
Hello,
Thank you for your answer. Interestingly, some people did estimate the volume of such a neuron! http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/2/444.long and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23008164
I was trying to use the density to 'guess' the volume, but it seems to give a very large mass (in the range of E-5)...
Hello, Diana. I expect one microgram might be a reasonable ballpark guess. It seems to me that the soma of DA neurons in the SN might be a bit larger than average, but that axonal projections might be relatively short--a few cm at most in humans to globus pallidus and putamen. How precise do you need to be for this idea?
Hello, thank you for all your answers! :)
Can anyone tell me please if they know what the average fraction (%) of the striatum is occupied by dopaminergic neurons?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Diana
If one rat dopaminergic axonal bush can occupy up to 5.7% of the dorsal striatum, what fraction would 12000 neurons cover please?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Biochemistry
- Enzymology
- Enzymes