Loss of white matter oligodendrocytes and astrocytes in progressive subcortical vascular encephalopathy of Binswanger type.

To study whether oligodendrocytes and astrocytes can be affected in progressive subcortical vascular encephalopathy of Binswanger type (PSVE), the number of oligodendrocytes and astrocytes was counted in the white matter of frontal lobe. A sum of the number of oligodendrocytes and astrocytes in the deep white matter in PSVE accounted for approximately half of that in the age-matched controls. The number of oligodendrocytes, which were defined as the cells with small, round and solid nuclei in the present study, also decreased in PSVE showing half of that in the deep white matter of the controls. The present data suggest that the loss of oligodendrocytes and astrocytes can play a role to the process of nerve fibres loss in PSVE, which has been reported in my previous study (1), although the possibility that nerve fibres loss results in the secondary loss of oligodendrocytes can not be ruled out.