Significant structural but not physiological changes in cortical neurons of 12-month-old Tg2576 mice

Abstract Amyloid-beta (Aβ) plays a key role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease, and pyramidal cell dendrites exposed to Aβ exhibit dramatic structural alterations, including reduced dendritic spine densities. To determine whether such structural alterations lead to electrophysiological chan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neurobiology of disease 2008-11, Vol.32 (2), p.309-318
Main Authors: Rocher, Anne B, Kinson, Michael S, Luebke, Jennifer I
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alzheimer Disease - genetics
Alzheimer Disease - pathology
Alzheimer's disease
Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor - genetics
Amyloid-beta
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Cell Size
Cerebral Cortex - pathology
Dendrites - pathology
Dendrites - physiology
Dendrites - ultrastructure
Dendritic spine
Disease Models, Animal
Electric Stimulation - methods
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials - drug effects
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials - physiology
Female
Frontal
Glutamatergic synaptic transmission
Humans
In Vitro Techniques
Membrane Potentials - genetics
Membrane Potentials - physiology
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Transgenic
Mutation
Neurology
Neurons - pathology
Neurons - physiology
Neurons - ultrastructure
Patch-clamp
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Slice
Streptavidin - metabolism
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Summary:Abstract Amyloid-beta (Aβ) plays a key role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease, and pyramidal cell dendrites exposed to Aβ exhibit dramatic structural alterations, including reduced dendritic spine densities. To determine whether such structural alterations lead to electrophysiological changes, whole-cell patch clamp recordings with biocytin filling were used to assess both the electrophysiological and morphological properties of layer 3 pyramidal cells in frontal cortical slices prepared from 12-month-old Tg2576 amyloid precursor protein (APP) mutant vs. wild-type (Wt) mice. Tg2576 cells exhibited significantly increased dendritic lengths and volumes and decreased spine densities, while the total number of spines was not different from Wt. Tg2576 and Wt cells did not differ with regard to passive membrane, action potential firing or glutamatergic spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic current properties. Thus, overexpression of mutated APP in young Tg2576 mice leads to significant changes in neuronal morphological properties which do not have readily apparent functional consequences.
ISSN:0969-9961
1095-953X
DOI:10.1016/j.nbd.2008.07.014