A postmortem assessment of mammillary body volume, neuronal number and densities, and fornix volume in subjects with mood disorders.

Mammillary bodies are relay nuclei within limbic and extralimbic connections. Whereas other subcortical brain structures have been found to be altered in depression, no current information exists regarding the pathomorphology of mammillary bodies in affective disorders. We studied the postmortem brains of 19 human subjects with mood disorders (9 with major depressive disorder and 10 with bipolar I disorder) and 20 control individuals and assessed the mammillary body and fornix volumes, number of neurons and neuronal densities. We found that male control subjects have significantly larger mammillary bodies compared with females. In addition, control subjects of both sexes with the diagnosis/cause of death of "heart failure/insufficiency" had significantly smaller mammillary body volumes compared with non-psychiatric patients who died from other causes. When estimating the mammillary bodies volumes of patients with depression compared with control subjects, a significant reduction of the left mammillary body volume was found in patients with bipolar disorder, but not in patients with major depression. However, significant depression-associated mammillary body volume reductions were found between the control subjects who did not die of heart failure and patients with major depression and bipolar disorder. Moreover, the MB volumes of control subjects who died of heart failure were in the range exhibited by subjects with depression. There was no significant influence of suicidal behavior on mammillary volumes observed. Moreover, no significant group differences in the total neuronal number or neuronal density were found between the controls, subjects with major depression and subjects with bipolar disorder. Furthermore, the fornix volumes were significantly reduced only in the control subjects with heart failure. Taken together, these results show that the mammillary bodies are compromised in depression.

Estimating mycotoxin contents of Fusarium-damaged winter wheat kernels.

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L., cultivars Ritmo and Dekan) grain was sampled in Northern Germany between 2001 and 2006. Kernels damaged by fungi of the genus Fusarium were separated from sound grain by visual assessment. Samples containing 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of Fusarium-damaged kernels were compiled and analyzed for the Fusarium type B trichothecenes deoxynivalenol (DON, 2001-2006), nivalenol (NIV, 2006), 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3AcDON, 2006) and 15-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (15AcDON, 2006). The relationship between mycotoxin contents and the percentage of Fusarium-damaged kernels was calculated for each lot of grain. Apart from one exception, relationships between the percentage of Fusarium-damaged kernels and NIV, 3AcDON or 15AcDON were non-significant. In contrast, close relationships between the percentage of Fusarium-damaged kernels and the DON content were observed (r(2)=0.93-0.99). The y-axis intercepts were not significantly different from zero, but the DON content of the damaged kernels varied by a factor of 11.59 between years and by a factor of 1.87 between cultivars. Fusarium-damaged kernels contained between 0.21 and 2.39 microg DON kernel(-1). The overall average DON content of a Fusarium-damaged wheat kernel was 1.29 +/- 0.11 microg. The DON content of diseased kernels was affected by environment and wheat genotype but not by genotype x environment interaction. On average, Fusarium-damaged kernels contained 9.7-fold more DON than 15AcDON, 19.5-fold more DON than NIV, and 26.9-fold more DON than 3AcDON. 3AcDON and 15AcDON contents per wheat kernel were not significantly different between cultivars. On average, 4.27% of Fusarium-damaged kernels were sufficient to reach the 1.25 mg DON kg(-1) grain limit for unprocessed cereals in the EU. Given the low percentages of Fusarium-damaged kernels that are equivalent to current legal DON limits, grading accuracies >96% would be needed when using automatic grading systems for separating sound from damaged kernels.