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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

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Glia selectively approach synapses on thin dendritic spines.

Medvedev Nikolai N Popov Victor V Henneberger Christian C Kraev Igor I Rusakov Dmitri A DA Stewart Michael G MG

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 20141001 1654

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 n ...[more]

PMID: 25225105

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