The Ultrastructure of the Dying Cells in the Brain. An Atlas of Transmission Electron Microscopy

This atlas presents in the simplest form, at original magnifications, plates from different clinical cases encountered in routine neurosurgical procedures (atherothrombotic disease, cerebral ischemia, cerebral tumors, cerebrovascular malformations, neurotrauma, Moyamoya disease, encephalitis, etc.). It is available to biologist and pathologist needing current information on the role of ultrastructure in different cell death diagnosis. Over time, molecular definitions are expected to emerge for these forms of cell death that remain descriptive, but the ultrastructural analysis of neuronal and vascular injury and death in the brain also remains relevant for this central key organ. For the first time, in this atlas it is presented an ultrastructural comparison between a new type of programmed cell death of cerebral endothelium through intracytoplasmatic autoschisis versus a survival cellular mechanism. In addition, we described ultrastructural features of the cells that die in skin in order to make a morphological comparison between different activated programmes of cell death in our body.