Koganezawa Noriko, Hanamura Kenji, Schwark Manuela, Krueger-Burg Dilja, Kawabe Hiroshi
Department of Pharmacology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-39-22 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Strasse 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2021 Dec 10;582:144-149. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.10.003. Epub 2021 Oct 7.
The chemical synapse is one type of cell-adhesion system that transmits information from a neuron to another neuron in the complex neuronal network in the brain. Synaptic transmission is the rate-limiting step during the information processing in the neuronal network and its plasticity is involved in cognitive functions. Thus, morphological and electrophysiological analyses of synapses are of particular importance in neuroscience research. In the current study, we applied super-resolved three-dimensional stimulated emission depletion (3D-STED) microscopy for the morphological analyses of synapses. This approach allowed us to estimate the precise number of excitatory and inhibitory synapses in the mouse hippocampal tissue. We discovered a region-specific increase in excitatory synapses in a model mouse of autism spectrum disorder, Neuroligin-3 KO, with this method. This type of analysis will open a new field in developmental neuroscience in the future.
化学突触是一种细胞粘附系统，在大脑复杂的神经元网络中，它能将信息从一个神经元传递到另一个神经元。突触传递是神经元网络信息处理过程中的限速步骤，其可塑性与认知功能有关。因此，对突触进行形态学和电生理学分析在神经科学研究中尤为重要。在本研究中，我们应用超分辨三维受激发射损耗（3D-STED）显微镜对突触进行形态学分析。这种方法使我们能够估计小鼠海马组织中兴奋性和抑制性突触的精确数量。通过这种方法，我们在自闭症谱系障碍模型小鼠Neuroligin-3基因敲除小鼠中发现了兴奋性突触的区域特异性增加。这种类型的分析将在未来为发育神经科学开辟一个新领域。
