'Melanosis of the dentate nucleus': a widespread disorder of protoplasmic astrocytes.

Abstract

Seven cases of so-called melanosis of the dentate nucleus are reported, 6 of them females and all but one over 49 years of age. The neuromelanin-like pigment seemed to be derived from lipofuscin in protoplasmic astrocytes and in 4 of the cases it was present in cerebral grey matter, mainly cortical, in addition to the cerebellum. The intensity of pigmentation and granule size in the different sites suggested that it could have developed sequentially, first in the dentate nucleus, then in the cerebellar granular layer and ultimately in the cerebral grey matter from occipital cortex forward. the melanosis appeared not to give rise to clinically recognisable functional effects and there was no other consistently associated disease process.