Unaltered dendritic spine density and morphology in CA1 pyramidal cells.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Representative examples of Golgi-stained CA1 pyramidal cells indicate similar branching and complexity of the dendritic trees in controls (CTR) and ADF mutants (ADF-KO). Scale bar: 50 µm. (<b>B</b>) Sholl analysis of the apical dendritic tree in the <i>stratum radiatum</i> revealed no difference between both genotypes (n = 8 for CTR; n = 6 for ADF-KO). (<b>C</b>) Representative images of 2^nd order dendritic branches from Golgi-stained pyramidal cells in the <i>stratum radiatum</i> of CA1. Scale bar: 2.5 µm. (<b>D</b>) The total number of spines (CTR: 27.1±0.2 spines/20 µm, ADF-KO: 27.9±0.5 spines/20 µm, P = 0.715) as well as the numbers of mushroom-like (CTR: 14.2±0.2 spines/20 µm, ADF-KO: 15.0±0.2 spines/20 µm, P = 0.540), stubby (CTR: 7.1±0.1 spines/20 µm, ADF-KO: 6.5±0.1 spines/20 µm, P = 0.435) and thin spines were unaltered in ADF-KO (CTR: 5.8±0.1 spines/20 µm, ADF-KO: 6.3±0.1 spines/20 µm, P = 0.583; more than 1,000 µm dendritic length was analyzed in four mice per genotype). (<b>E+F</b>) Representative electron micrographs of CA1 <i>stratum radiatum</i> from a CTR and an ADF-KO mouse. Image size: 2.27 µm²; b: presynaptic bouton, sp: postsynaptic spine, *: postsynaptic density. (<b>G</b>) Spine area (CTR: 0.098±0.004 µm², n = 181 spines from 3 mice; ADF-KO: 0.102±0.004 µm², n = 185/3; P = 0.512) and (<b>H</b>) PSD length (CTR: 0.193±0.005 µm, n = 184 spines from 3 mice; ADF-KO: 0.201±0.005 µm, n = 183/3; P = 0.277) were unchanged in ADF-KO as deduced from the cumulative distribution curves and the mean values (insets).