Structure of the Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Influenced by Sex Across the Lifespan

93 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.The development and aging of sex differences in the volume, neuron number and glial cell number in the mPFC, as well as frontal white matter volume, were also examined in both sexes using unbiased stereological techniques. Ventral rat mPFC gray matter volume increased prior to puberty and then decreased between puberty and adulthood, especially in females. This reduction in volume was reflected in a loss of neurons during this time. This pattern was not found in the dorsal mPFC, in which both volume and neuron number increased linearly across the examined ages. Although males had a larger volume of both dorsal and ventral mPFC regions in adulthood, a sex difference in neuron number was present only in the ventral mPFC at this time. Frontal white matter volume increased in both sexes, but more so in males, resulting in an adult sex difference. During aging, neuron number and volume of the mPFC were preserved. While robust sex differences, favoring males, were present among young adults in terms of regional volumes and cell number, differences between males and females were muted during aging. The preservation of mPFC cell number indicates that cortical cell loss in this region does not underlie cognitive deficits commonly observed during aging.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD