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Choice of cranial window type for in vivo imaging affects dendritic spine turnover in the cortex

Nature Neuroscience volume 10, pages 549–551 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Determining the degree of synapse formation and elimination is essential for understanding the structural basis of brain plasticity and pathology. We show that in vivo imaging of dendritic spine dynamics through an open-skull glass window, but not a thinned-skull window, is associated with high spine turnover and substantial glial activation during the first month after surgery. These findings help to explain existing discrepancies in the degree of dendritic spine plasticity observed in the mature cortex.

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Figure 1: High spine turnover was associated with the open-skull window.
Figure 2: Extensive glial activation is observed after open-skull surgery but not thinned-skull surgery.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Kasthuri, J. Grutzendler and K. Helmin for critical comments on this manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (W.-B.G.).

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Author notes

  1. Hua-Tai Xu, Feng Pan and Guang Yang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Molecular Neurobiology Program, Skirball Institute, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, 10016, New York, USA

    Hua-Tai Xu, Feng Pan, Guang Yang & Wen-Biao Gan

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  1. Hua-Tai Xu
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  2. Feng Pan
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  3. Guang Yang
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  4. Wen-Biao Gan
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Contributions

H.-T.X., F.P. and G.Y. contributed equally to this work. All of the authors contributed to the experimental design. G.Y., F.P. and H.-T.X. did the in vivo imaging experiments and the data analysis. H.-T.X. did the immunostaining and imaging of glial cells. W.-B.G. initiated the project, contributed to the initial experiments and wrote the manuscript. H.-T.X., F.P. and G.Y. discussed the results, made the figures and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen-Biao Gan.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Survival fraction of dendritic spines from individual mice under open-skull or thinned-skull windows. (PDF 606 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Reduction in spine density in the first 2 weeks after open-skull surgery. (PDF 609 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Additional examples showing microglial activation under open-skull windows, but not thinned skull windows. (PDF 2337 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4

Additional examples showing astrocyte activation under the open-skull window, but not the thinned skull window. (PDF 1214 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 5

Astrocyte activation continues 20–30 d after open-skull surgery. (PDF 1097 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Microglia density quantification 10 d after surgery. (PDF 283 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 1064 kb)

Supplementary Notes (PDF 78 kb)

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Xu, HT., Pan, F., Yang, G. et al. Choice of cranial window type for in vivo imaging affects dendritic spine turnover in the cortex. Nat Neurosci 10, 549–551 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1883

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