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Spine formation and maturation in the developing rat auditory cortex
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Spine formation and maturation in the developing rat auditory cortex

Scott J Schachtele, Joe Losh, Michael E Dailey and Steven H Green
Journal of comparative neurology (1911), Vol.519(16), pp.3327-3345
11/01/2011
DOI: 10.1002/cne.22728
PMCID: PMC3905797
PMID: 21800311
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3905797View
Open Access

Abstract

The rat auditory cortex is organized as a tonotopic map of sound frequency. This map is broadly tuned at birth and is refined during the first 3 weeks postnatal. The structural correlates underlying tonotopic map maturation and reorganization during development are poorly understood. We employed fluorescent dye ballistic labeling ("DiOlistics") alone, or in conjunction with immunohistochemistry, to quantify synaptogenesis in the auditory cortex of normal hearing rats. We show that the developmental appearance of dendritic protrusions, which include both immature filopodia and mature spines, on layers 2/3, 4, and 5 pyramidal and layer 4 spiny nonpyramidal neurons occurs in three phases: slow addition of dendritic protrusions from postnatal day 4 (P4) to P9, rapid addition of dendritic protrusions from P9 to P19, and a final phase where mature protrusion density is achieved (>P21). Next, we combined DiOlistics with immunohistochemical labeling of bassoon, a presynaptic scaffolding protein, as a novel method to categorize dendritic protrusions as either filopodia or mature spines in cortex fixed in vivo. Using this method we observed an increase in the spine-to-filopodium ratio from P9-P16, indicating a period of rapid spine maturation. Previous studies report mature spines as being shorter in length compared to filopodia. We similarly observed a reduction in protrusion length between P9 and P16, corroborating our immunohistochemical spine maturation data. These studies show that dendritic protrusion formation and spine maturation occur rapidly at a time previously shown to correspond to auditory cortical tonotopic map refinement (P11-P14), providing a structural correlate of physiological maturation.
Microscopy, Confocal Animals Auditory Cortex - growth & development Fluorescent Antibody Technique Rats Female Male Neurogenesis Rats, Sprague-Dawley Dendritic Spines - ultrastructure

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