Age-Induced Loss of Mossy Fibre Synapses on CA3 Thorns in the CA3 Stratum Lucidum
Figure 2
Electron micrographs showing the contrast between CA3 SL tissue from young adult (4 months) and aged (28 months) tissue. Qualitatively, tissue from the young rats and aged rats showed some differences, most notably fewer vesicles present in the mossy fibre boutons of the aged animals, and in the 4-month-old animal mitochondria are more numerous. Single and double asterisks in (a) denote macular and perforated synapses, respectively (based on observation of serial sections). Abbreviation: postsynaptic density (PSD), mitochondria (m), thorny excrescence (Te; pink), mossy fibre (mf; yellow), glial processes (Gp). Scale bar: 1.0 μm in (b)-(c) and 0.2 μm in (a).
