Arapid increase in the elderly population has raised social awareness for maintaining the health of the elderly and initiated intense research in neurodegenerative diseases. Exercise can improve not only cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness, but also suppresses the symptoms of depression and anxiety, suggesting a possible role of exercise in the regulation of brain function. Based on a substantial body of literature, here we introduce the effects of exercise on the structural and functional changes in the aging brain, and also discuss the molecular and cellular effects of exercise and motor learning. Studies show that regular exercise in the elderly promotes neurocognitive function, prevents loss of brain tissue, and reduces the risk for neurodegenerative diseases and brain injury. Although the molecular mechanisms, by which exercise regulates brain function, has not been fully understood, recent cell biological and biochemical studies reveal that exercise increases neurogenesis in the hippocampus, elevates the levels of neurotrophins such as BDNF and IGF-1 to promote the survival of newly generated neurons. Exercise also induces angiogenesis in the motor cortex and cerebellum to enhance delivery of glucose and oxygen to neurons. Furthermore, complex motor skill learning increases the number of synapses to improve cognitive and motor function. Taken together, these findings clearly demonstrate that exercise serves as a behavioral intervention to prevent cognitive decline as well as neurodegenerative diseases. Thus long-term regular exercise in parallel with various learning experiences will be required to prepare successful aging. This study will provide fundamental insights into research in neurodegenerative diseases and a better understanding of the exercise effects in brain function.
Aged ; Aging ; Anxiety ; Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Cerebellum ; Depression ; Glucose ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Insulin-Like Growth Factor I ; Learning ; Motor Cortex ; Motor Skills ; Nerve Growth Factors ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Neurogenesis ; Neurons ; Oxygen ; Synapses

No abstract available.
Anthropology, Physical* ; Optic Nerve

The spinal cord is part of the central nervous system, and its caudal end is named as the conus medullaris. Many researchers have reported the tip level of the conus medullaris by magnetic resonance imaging studies; others by cadaver dissection. The tip level of magnetic resonance imaging studies seemed to be higher than that of cadaver studies. We evaluated the tip level the conus medullaris with magnetic resonance imaging and cadaver dissection in Korean adult population. MR data were scanned with T1-weighted, mid-sagittal magnetic resonance imaging of 248 living persons (mean age, 42.3±16.0 years; range, 12-85 years) and cadaver data were collected by dissections of 118 cadavers (mean age, 56.0±14.9 years; range, 16-94 years). The mean level of conus tip was found to be at the middle third of 1st lumbar vertebra (range, lower third T12 - lower third L2) from magnetic resonance imaging study and the upper third of 2nd lumbar vertebra (range, lower third T12 - lower third L3) from cadaver dissection study. The tip level of conus medullaris from magnetic resonance imaging study was higher than that from cadaver dissection study (p<0.05).
Adult* ; Cadaver* ; Central Nervous System ; Conus Snail* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Spinal Cord* ; Spine

The vertebral pedicle is an important structure used as an implant site for spinal instrumentation surgery. Since precise anatomical knowledge of lumbar pedicles in vivo is essential for risk - free surgery, we analyzed Korean vertebrae with radiologic imaging techniques. The authors analayzed 500 pedicles from L1 to L5 vertebrae with computerized tomograms (CT) and simple radiograms taken from patient free of vertebral abnormality. Five morphometric parameters: transverse pedicle width, transverse pedicle angle, sagittal pedicle width, sagittal pedicle angle depth to anterior cortex were measured. The transverse diameter and angle of pedicle increased gradually from L1 to L5, while the sagittal diameter and angle decreased from L1 to L5. The depth to anterior cortex from posterior elements was longer along the pedicle axis than along axis parallel to midline.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Humans ; Lumbar Vertebrae* ; Spine

Corpus striatum is subcortical nuclei composed of caudate nucleus and putamen. It has been considered to be associated with motor control and learning. Dysfunction of the striatum is related to Huntington's disease, Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Nevertheless, standard Korean striatum volume was not set yet. Here, we report the striatum volume in healthy Korean youths. The subjects were composed of 57 youths (male, 28; female, 29). The MRI study was undertaken after a brief history taking and neurological examination. The DICOM files were imported into V-Works program. Volume models of the intracranial cavity, whole brain, caudate nucleus, and putamen were made and their volumes were calculated by the program. The average caudate volume was 7.23±1.18 cm³ in male group and 6.23±0.96 cm³ in female group. The average volume of putamen was 7.19±1.25 cm³ in male group and 6.38±0.86 cm³ in female group. Interestingly the right caudate volume is significantly larger in both group, although there is no difference in putamen volume. This study reports Korean corpus striatum volume in healthy volunteers. These results would provide an important standard reference for further study.
Adolescent* ; Brain ; Caudate Nucleus* ; Corpus Striatum ; Female ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Huntington Disease ; Learning ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Male ; Neurologic Examination ; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ; Putamen* ; Schizophrenia ; Tourette Syndrome

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides high resolution images, which are useful in studying ultrastructure of cells and tissues. We have to use very thin section about 60~100 nm thickness due to poor penetration power of the conventional TEM at 100 kV. To overcome this limitation, TEMs using higher accelerating voltage have been developed. TEMs can be categorized into conventional TEM, intermediate TEM, high voltage TEM (HVEM), and ultrahigh voltage TEM according to their accelerating voltage. HVEM using 500~1,000 kV has an enough penetration power to observe thick specimen up to 3~4 micro, which is useful understanding 3 dimensional configuration of the cell and tissue. HVEM was built up in Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI, Daejeon, Korea) at 2004, maximum accelerating voltage is 1.3 MV in Korea. Many results showed up to the present various fields of science such as medical science, biology, agriculture and so on. Here, we briefly summarize recent biomedical applications of HVEM to provide an insight of HVEM for morphologist.
Agriculture ; Biology ; Electrons ; Korea ; Microscopy, Electron ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission

Tethered cord syndrome is a symptom complex result from tightening of film terminale. Thickened filum terminale, lipomyelomeningocele, diastematomyelia, dermal sinus tract, intradural fibrous adhesion, and spinal lipoma might cause the tightening. The common mechanism of these injury is suggested an impairment of longitudinal movement of the sinal cord, especially conus medullaris, which subsequently leads to chronic local ischemia. During cadaver dissection, we have observed low conus medullaris (L4) and thickened film terminale with intradural lipoma in 51 years old female. Thickened film terminale merged into lipomtous cyst located in lower marin of sacral canal. These morphologic findings is considered a lipomatous film terminale, which might cause tethered syndrome.
Cadaver* ; Cauda Equina* ; Conus Snail ; Female ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Lipoma ; Middle Aged ; Neural Tube Defects ; Spina Bifida Occulta

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C(PLC) is known as a key enzyme which produces two major second messengers: diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate. Although it has been suggested that PLC beta isozymes have important roles in nervous system, less is known about the function of PLC beta in development of nervous system. We have localized the mRNA expressions of PLC beta isozymes in the postnatal rat brains by id firm hybridization histochemistry. In the postnatal rat brains, each isozyme of PLC beta showed differential expression pattern. The expression of PLC beta1 mRNA was found in various areas including olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex, caudate putamen, hippocampus, dentate gyrus, and cerebellum. In general, the expression in these areas was gradually increased after birth (PO) until postnatal day 21 (P2l) and slightly decreased to adult level. The expression of PLC beta2 mRNA was not found in postnatal rat brains. The expression of PLC beta3 mRNA was found from P0, peaked at Pl4, and decreased to adult level in the purkinje cells of cerebellum. PLC beta4 mRNA was strongly expressed in the thalamus, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, and olfactory bulb. In these areas, the expression was gradually increased after birth, peaked at P2l, and decreased to adult level. In whole body parasagittal sections of 18 day old rat embryo, PLC betal mRNA was exclusively expressed in nervous tissue, PLC beta3 and PLC beta4 were expressed in various tissues, and the expression of PLC beta2 was not found in any kind of rat tissues. From the different spatiotemporal mRNA expression patterns of PLC beta isozymes in the postnatal rat brains, it is suspected that each PLC beta isozyme may have specific role in signal transduction for postnatal development of rat brain.
Adult ; Animals ; Brain* ; Cerebellum ; Cerebral Cortex ; Dentate Gyrus ; Embryonic Structures ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Inositol ; Isoenzymes* ; Nervous System ; Olfactory Bulb ; Parturition ; Phospholipase C beta* ; Phospholipases* ; Purkinje Cells ; Putamen ; Rats* ; RNA, Messenger* ; Second Messenger Systems ; Signal Transduction ; Thalamus

The tottering (tg/tg) is neurologic mutant mouse exhibiting three neurological disorders: ataxia, petit mal-like absence seizures and myoclonic intermittent movement disorder. The tottering mouse carries an autosomal recessive single gene mutation on chromosome 8. The leaner (tgla) and Nagoya rolling (tgrol) are another two alleles of the tottering (tg). The combination of two mutant (tottering and leaner) produces compound heterozygous, tottering/leaner (tg/tgla) mouse. The genetic etilogy of the tottering and leaner was identified to be a mutation in voltage-dependent calcium channel a1A subunit. It made us link these animal model to human neurologic disease such as autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia (SCA6), familial hemiplegic migraine and episodic ataxia type-2. The different onset and severity of neurological symptom of these three mutants (tg/tg, tg/tgla, tgla/tgla) offer good scale to analysis of pathophysiolgy of the neurologic disorder. Altered synapase between parallel fiber varicosity and dendritic spines of Purkinje cell was observed in adult tottering and leaner mice. Through the electron microscopic observation and anticalbindin-28 kd immunohistochemistry, we anaylzed not only the relationship between neurologic symptoms and synaptic plasticity around the ataxic onset of tottering, leaner and tottering leaner double mutation but also Purkinje cell morphology affected by voltage-sensitive calcium channel a1A subunit mutation in totterring mouse. Purkinje cell dendritic spines from proximal dendrites and axonal swellings of Purkine cell were observed frequently in wild type mice. The first apperance point of altered synapse based on semi-quantitative analysis was postnatal 15 days in leaner, postnatal 18 days in totering/leaner double mutation, and 30 days in tottering. These data suggest that altered synapse is associated with ataxia in tottering and leaner mice. Further study is needed to determine whether altered synapse is primary cause of ataxia.
Adult ; Alleles ; Animals ; Ataxia ; Axons ; Calcium Channels ; Cerebellar Ataxia ; Cerebellum* ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 8 ; Dendrites ; Dendritic Spines* ; Epilepsy, Absence ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mice* ; Mice, Neurologic Mutants ; Migraine with Aura ; Models, Animal ; Movement Disorders ; Nervous System Diseases ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Plastics* ; Synapses*

Background: The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has profoundly affected education, with most universities changing face-to-face classes to online formats. To adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, we adopted a blended learning approach to anatomy instruction that included online lectures, pre-recorded laboratory dissection videos, and 3D anatomy applications, with condensed offline cadaver dissection. Methods: We aimed to examine the learning outcomes of a newly adopted anatomy educational approach by 1) comparing academic achievement between the blended learning group (the 2020 class, 108 students) and the traditional classroom learning group (the 2019 class, 104 students), and 2) an online questionnaire survey on student preference on the learning method and reasons of preference. Results: The average anatomy examination scores of the 2020 class, who took online lectures and blended dissection laboratories, were significantly higher than those of the 2019 class, who participated in an offline lecture and dissection laboratories. The questionnaire survey revealed that students preferred online lectures over traditional large group lecture-based teaching because it allowed them to acquire increased self-study time, study according to their individual learning styles, and repeatedly review lecture videos. Conclusion This study suggests that a blended learning approach is an effective method for anatomy learning, and the advantage may result from increased self-directed study through online learning.