Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
SHR Neuro Krebs Kardio Lipid Stoffw Microb
Reichmann, F; Painsipp, E; Holzer, P; Kummer, D; Bock, E; Leitinger, G.
A novel unbiased counting method for the quantification of synapses in the mouse brain.
J Neurosci Methods. 2015; 240(6):13-21
Doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2014.10.020
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- Führende Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz
- Leitinger Gerd
- Reichmann Florian
- Co-Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz
- Bock Elisabeth
- Holzer Peter
- Kummer Daniel
- Singewald Evelin
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- Abstract:
- The numerical density of synapses and their ultrastructural features are best assessed with electron microscopy. Counting is done within counting frames placed on a pair of sections (disector technique). But this requires that the thin sections are taken from comparable brain regions and the disectors are placed in a uniform random fashion. Small brain areas like the polymorph layer of the mouse dentate gyrus are difficult to encounter, and manually moving the microscope stage for placing the micrographs seems arbitrary. Here the polymorph layer was approximated with 20μm thin, Nissl-stained vibratome sections. The subsequent vibratome section was processed for electron microscopy and serially thin sectioned. The microscope stage was moved using a random number generator, placing at least 20 disectors onto a pair of sections. The numerical synapse density, the numerical density of dense-core vesicles, and other ultrastructural features were compared between mice that had been kept in an enriched environment and mice kept under standard housing conditions. Environmental enrichment significantly decreased the numerical density of dense-core vesicles and synaptic cleft widths within the polymorph layer, associated with behavioral improvement in the Morris water maze, a hippocampus-dependent task of spatial learning and memory. This procedure was easy to handle and enabled us to produce thin sections in small, defined brain areas. Furthermore, placing the disectors with random numbers excluded observer bias. Our procedure provides an uncomplicated way of assessing numerical densities in small brain areas in an unbiased manner. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
- Find related publications in this database (using NLM MeSH Indexing)
- Animals -
- Dentate Gyrus - ultrastructure
- Environment -
- Female -
- Housing, Animal -
- Maze Learning -
- Mice, Inbred C57BL -
- Microscopy, Electron - methods
- Pattern Recognition, Automated - methods
- Secretory Vesicles - ultrastructure
- Software -
- Spatial Memory -
- Synapses - ultrastructure
- Find related publications in this database (Keywords)
- Disector
- Mouse
- Environmental enrichment
- Electron microscopy
- Dentate gyrus
- Dense core vesicle