A morphological and stereological study on thoracal spinal cord of one and five months age male rat

In this study volume density of gray and white matter of thoracal segments of spinal cords of rats were investigated using stereological method. Twelve male Wistar albino rats were used in the study as two different age groups 1 and 5 months. The materials obtained from Experimental Animal Breeding and Research Center of Van Yuzuncu Yil University Faculty of Medicine were determined with 10% formaldehyde for one week. Rats were dissected and spinal cords of rats were removed. In the study thoracal segments of 1 and 5 months age rats were obtained. One of the first 15 section were selected randomly when the sections were taken. And following every 50th section was determined by systematic random sampling. Thus, 12 sections of 5µm thickness were obtained from thoracal segments of each animal's spinal cord. These sections were stained by hematoxylin eosin and they were photographed at microscope. Densities of volumes of all tissue of thoracal segments of whole spinal cord and white and gray matters were calculated using point counting scala by Cavalieri Principle. SHTEREOM 1.5 package programme was used for counting dotted area. In addition, the volume vales of total thoracal segment, volume values of the white matter and the gray matter and the ratios of these volume values to each other were evaluated in the study.