Emerging Roles of Filopodia and Dendritic Spines in Motoneuron Plasticity during Development and Disease

Figure 5

Somatodendritic morphologies of hypoglossal motoneurons during postnatal development and under neuropathological conditions. (a) Filopodia (long arrows) and spine-like processes (short arrows) in the somatodendritic domain of a motoneuron from a P0 WT mouse. (b) Increased density and size of filopodia and spine-like processes from a P0 mice lacking vesicular inhibitory amino acid transporter (VGAT-KO). (c-d) Filopodia and spine-like processes in the soma decrease in density and size during postnatal development from WT mice at P15 (d) and P30 (c). (e-f) Density and size of filopodia and spine-like processes are higher in motoneuronal somatodendritic domain in mice overexpressing the mutated human Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase () gene at P15 (e) and P30 (f). All micrographs are assembled from confocal image stacks of 20 to 40 optical images collected at 0.35 μm steps using an Olympus BX61 (Olympus Fluoview ver. 1.7c) microscope. Scale bar in (f) = 10 μm (applies to all panels).

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