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Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex
In recent years, numerous studies have shown that astrocytes play an important role in neuronal processing of information. One of the most interesting findings is the existence of bidirectional interactions between neurons and astrocytes at synapses, which has given rise to the concept of “tripartit...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7233003/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31989178 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz343 |
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author | Kikuchi, Toko Gonzalez-Soriano, Juncal Kastanauskaite, Asta Benavides-Piccione, Ruth Merchan-Perez, Angel DeFelipe, Javier Blazquez-Llorca, Lidia |
author_facet | Kikuchi, Toko Gonzalez-Soriano, Juncal Kastanauskaite, Asta Benavides-Piccione, Ruth Merchan-Perez, Angel DeFelipe, Javier Blazquez-Llorca, Lidia |
author_sort | Kikuchi, Toko |
collection | PubMed |
description | In recent years, numerous studies have shown that astrocytes play an important role in neuronal processing of information. One of the most interesting findings is the existence of bidirectional interactions between neurons and astrocytes at synapses, which has given rise to the concept of “tripartite synapses” from a functional point of view. We used focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy (FIB/SEM) to examine in 3D the relationship of synapses with astrocytes that were previously labeled by intracellular injections in the rat somatosensory cortex. We observed that a large number of synapses (32%) had no contact with astrocytic processes. The remaining synapses (68%) were in contact with astrocytic processes, either at the level of the synaptic cleft (44%) or with the pre- and/or post-synaptic elements (24%). Regarding synaptic morphology, larger synapses with more complex shapes were most frequently found within the population that had the synaptic cleft in contact with astrocytic processes. Furthermore, we observed that although synapses were randomly distributed in space, synapses that were free of astrocytic processes tended to form clusters. Overall, at least in the developing rat neocortex, the concept of tripartite synapse only seems to be applicable to a subset of synapses. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7233003 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72330032020-05-21 Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex Kikuchi, Toko Gonzalez-Soriano, Juncal Kastanauskaite, Asta Benavides-Piccione, Ruth Merchan-Perez, Angel DeFelipe, Javier Blazquez-Llorca, Lidia Cereb Cortex Original Article In recent years, numerous studies have shown that astrocytes play an important role in neuronal processing of information. One of the most interesting findings is the existence of bidirectional interactions between neurons and astrocytes at synapses, which has given rise to the concept of “tripartite synapses” from a functional point of view. We used focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy (FIB/SEM) to examine in 3D the relationship of synapses with astrocytes that were previously labeled by intracellular injections in the rat somatosensory cortex. We observed that a large number of synapses (32%) had no contact with astrocytic processes. The remaining synapses (68%) were in contact with astrocytic processes, either at the level of the synaptic cleft (44%) or with the pre- and/or post-synaptic elements (24%). Regarding synaptic morphology, larger synapses with more complex shapes were most frequently found within the population that had the synaptic cleft in contact with astrocytic processes. Furthermore, we observed that although synapses were randomly distributed in space, synapses that were free of astrocytic processes tended to form clusters. Overall, at least in the developing rat neocortex, the concept of tripartite synapse only seems to be applicable to a subset of synapses. Oxford University Press 2020-05 2020-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7233003/ /pubmed/31989178 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz343 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
spellingShingle | Original Article Kikuchi, Toko Gonzalez-Soriano, Juncal Kastanauskaite, Asta Benavides-Piccione, Ruth Merchan-Perez, Angel DeFelipe, Javier Blazquez-Llorca, Lidia Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex |
title | Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex |
title_full | Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex |
title_fullStr | Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex |
title_full_unstemmed | Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex |
title_short | Volume Electron Microscopy Study of the Relationship Between Synapses and Astrocytes in the Developing Rat Somatosensory Cortex |
title_sort | volume electron microscopy study of the relationship between synapses and astrocytes in the developing rat somatosensory cortex |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7233003/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31989178 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz343 |
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