Does anybody have a good reference on the number of cells (including neurons, glial cells...) present in 1µg of mouse brain tissue? More precisely on pre frontal cortex, hypocampus, or striatum (caudate)?
Hello, Joachim's way of coming up with a number is elegant. However, you have to keep in mind that there is a LOT of variation in cell density throughout the brain. Hence the number will depend on the region you're interested in.
Hello, Joachim's way of coming up with a number is elegant. However, you have to keep in mind that there is a LOT of variation in cell density throughout the brain. Hence the number will depend on the region you're interested in.
Suzana Hercolano-Houzel also works on that. She counted the number of neurons in a lot of various taxa. You might find the answer in one of her publications.
A much easier and quantitative way of evaluating the number of cells in a given tissue is using the DNA quantity measurements. This number (amount of DNA/cell) is available in the literature. All diploid cells have certain fixed amount of DNA per cell and thus by quantitating the total DNA in your tissue will give you an estimate of the number of (neuronal and non-neuronal) cells in the sample.