Secrets in the brain of people who commit suicide because of depression

Canadian scientists found a difference between brain cells of suicidal people and normal people.

Livescience said scientists from McGill University in Canada investigated the brains of 10 people who suffered from depression before suicide and the brains of 10 people died naturally. They focus their attention on the frontal rim of the brain - an area that controls mood and decision making.

The researchers found that in the depressed frontal rim of the brain, some astrocytes (star-like shapes) are larger and more branched than normal human cells.

A cell astrocyte.(Photo: brainstorm-cell.com)

The difference is only expressed in the white matter of the brain, not the gray matter . White is deeper in the brain than gray matter and is made up of nerve fibers. Those fibers allow the brain regions to communicate with each other.

Naguib Mechawar, the leader of the study, said they did not know what changes in astrocytes were the cause or the outcome of depression. Experts can only predict how these changes affect mood disorders. They argue that the distortion of astrocyte neurons affects the communication activity between the frontal rim of the brain and other areas of the brain.

Astrocyte cells belong to a group of Glial cells (Glial means "glue" in Greek). Previously, scientists thought that they played a small role in brain activity, such as supporting nutrient supply to nerve cells. But recently researchers have found that astrocyte cells play a much more important role in the brain. For example, they participate in the process of forming some psychological disorders such as depression.