Neuron soma size and density measurements in male and female adult rat nucleus accumbens shell, nucleus accumbens core, and caudate-putamen disaggregated by sex and estrous cycle phase

This dataset contains neuron soma size and density measurements from adult male and female rat striatal regions, including the nucleus accumbens shell, nucleus accumbens core, and caudate-putamen. The estrous cycle phase exhibited by the female rat was assessed, including the diestrus, proestrus, and estrus phases. Soma size and density properties across animals are presented in an analyzed format in a spreadsheet, as well as the individual calculations for each animal. Micrographs of Nissl-stained cells from each animal are also included in BMP format. These data provide the first measurements of striatal neuron soma size and density from adult gonad-intact animals and were key for revealing that the soma size of male neurons were bigger than female neurons in the nucleus accumbens shell.

Methods
This dataset was collected using micrographs of nissl-stained striatal brain region tissue of adult male and female rats. The following brain regions were assessed: nucleus accumbens shell, nucleus accumbens core, and caudate-putamen. Striatal regions were assessed between 2.28-0.84 bregma. Counting box localization followed a previous study (Meitzen et al., 2011). For the CPu, the counting boxes were situated in the dorsomedial and dorsolateral portions. For the NAc core, the analyzed region encompassed both the medial and lateral areas adjacent to the anterior commissure. For the NAc shell, the region analyzed was medial to the lateral ventricle (commonly referred to as medial NAc shell). The nissl-stained neuron somas were analyzed to generate neuron soma size and density. These properties were then compared by striatal region, sex and female estrous cycle phase. More details can be found in the companion article, Dale et al., 2025, which is published in Brain Structure and Function (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-025-02995-5).