Blood Supply to the Human Dentate Nucleus by Cerebellar Arteries

The major roles of human cerebellum are balancing and planning, initiation, and modulation of voluntary movements. In addition, the cerebellum is known to be related with the cognitive function. The dentate nucleus is the largest deep nucleus in human cerebellum. The dentate nucleus is known to have somatotopic arrangement in itself in relation with the upper limb and lower limb. Series of cognitive function tests revealed that the areas for different cognitive domains are located in specific arrangement in the dentate nucleus as well. However, the mapping of arterial supply to each regions of the dentate nucleus by cerebellar arteries has not been clarified anatomically. The aims of this study are to clarify the arterial territories in the dentate nucleus and to match them with the known somatotopy and the arrangement of cognitive area in the dentate nucleus which should be useful for research and clinical situation of various cerebellar diseases. Fourteen cerebellar hemispheres from seven adult cadavers were used in this study. Red‐colored radio‐opaque silicon dye was injected into the vertebral arteries or their branches supplying the cerebellum. Computed tomographs of the cerebellar hemispheres were taken. The cerebellar hemispheres were sliced into sections of 5 mm thickness. The sliced cerebellar hemispheres were stained by Mulligan method. The stained sections were microdissectioned under surgical microscopes. Most of the dentate nuclei were mainly supplied by three or four direct branches of superior cerebellar arteries and two or three direct branches of posterior inferior cerebellar arteries. Between the known suppliers to the dentate nucleus, the superior cerebellar artery is more dominant for dorsal side of the dentate nucleus, whereas the dominant artery for the ventral side of the dentate nucleus is the posterior inferior cerebellar artery.