Fig. 2

Morphological alterations of human dentate granule cells (DGCs) during the progression of Alzheimer´s disease (AD). a-d Representative images of Golgi-stained hippocampi and high-power magnification images showing the somata and primary dendrites of DGCs from control subjects and AD patients at distinct Braak-Tau stages. e Total dendritic length. f Sholl´s analysis. g Area of the soma. h Number of ending-tips. i Dendritic complexity index (DCI). j Maximum dendritic span. k Percentage of cells with more than one apical primary dendrite. l Schematic representation of dendrite branch orders. m. Number of dendrites in each branch order. Yellow bar: 500 µm. Green bar: 20 µm. DG, dentate gyrus; GCL, granule cell layer; H, hilus; ML, molecular layer. Colored arrowheads: apical primary dendrites. n = 127 cells obtained from 5 neurologically healthy control subjects and 512 cells obtained from 17 AD patients. * 0.05 > P ≥ 0.01; ** 0.01 > P ≥ 0.001; and *** P < 0.001. Asterisks represent statistically significant differences in Tukey`s (ANOVA) or Dunn`s (Kruskal–Wallis) post-hoc analyses, or Chi-squared test