Glia selectively approach synapses on thin dendritic spines.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the relationship between the morphological modality of 189 dendritic spines and the surrounding astroglia using full three-dimensional reconstructions of neuropil fragments. An integrative measure of three-dimensional glial coverage confirms that thin spine postsynaptic densities are more tightly surrounded by glia. This distinction suggests that diffusion-dependent synapse-glia communication near 'learning' synapses (associated with thin spines) could be stronger than that near 'memory' synapses (associated with larger spines).

SUBMITTER: Medvedev N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4173297 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature