The structure of cleft material in spine synapses of rat cerebral and cerebellar cortices.

Synaptic clefts of rat cerebral and cerebellar axodendritic spine synapses were studied after aldehyde-perfusion and subsequent immersion into osmic acid or after processing by the aldehyde-PTA technique. The three-dimensional examination of aldehyde-perfused, osmic acid postfixed synapses revealed a double-layered intracleft lamina comparable in dimensions and position to the cleft density of non-osmicated, PTA-stained synapses. The relationship of this lamina to perisynaptic astroglial processes was pointed out. Densitometric analysis of the cleft area suggested the identity of the intracleft lamina of osmicated synapses with the cleft density of non-osmicated, PTA-stained synapses.