Disorders of Neuronal Migration in Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

We have analyzed 60 autopsy cases of cerebral palsy (CP) at the Aichi Prefectural Colony. The weight of the CP brains was distributed most frequently between 60 to 70% of normal brain weight. Coronal thin sections of the whole brains through the mammillary bodies were made using a large-sized microtome and stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and Kliiver-Barerra (KB) stains. Macroscopically, CP brains were classified into microgyria-pachygyria type (45 cases), thin cerebral mantle type (10 cases), hydrocephalus type (3 cases), and lissencephalic type (2 cases). Macroscopic image analysis was performed using the KBstained whole brain sections from the microgyria-pachygyria type CP brains, as well as 9 brains of control cases with non-neurological diseases and 4 brains with Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD). The CP brains showed narrowed white matter with dilated ventricules compared with the controls. Microscopic analysis showed that ectopic grey matter (about 16%), and disorganization of the cerebral cortex (about 50%), and neuronal depletion (about 50%). These findings suggest that some of the CP brains resulted from disturbance of neuronal migration.