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Double dissociation between long-term depression and dendritic spine morphology in cerebellar Purkinje cells

Nature Neuroscience volume 10, pages 546–548 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Experiments in hippocampal area CA1 suggest that long-term potentiation could be associated with spine addition and enlargement, and long-term depression (LTD) with spine shrinkage and loss. Is this a general principle of synaptic plasticity? We used two-photon microscopy to measure dendritic spines in rat cerebellar Purkinje cells. Neither local synaptic induction of LTD nor global chemical induction of LTD changed spine number or size. Conversely, a manipulation that evoked persistent dendritic spine retraction did not alter parallel fiber–evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents.

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Figure 1: Synaptically evoked LTD of identified parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses was not associated with changes in dendritic spines.
Figure 2: Chemically evoked LTD of bolus-loaded Purkinje cells was not associated with changes in dendritic spines.
Figure 3: Depolarization-evoked spine retraction was not associated with synaptic depression.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to D. Bergles and members of the Linden laboratory for helpful discussions. This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health MH51106 and the Develbiss Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 725 N. Wolfe Street, 916 Hunterian Building, Baltimore, 21205, Maryland, USA

    Andrei D Sdrulla & David J Linden

Authors
  1. Andrei D Sdrulla
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  2. David J Linden
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Contributions

A.D.S. conducted the experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and D.J.L. supervised the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David J Linden.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Exemplar images of spiny dendrites before and after induction of parallel fiber LTD by synaptic stimulation. (PDF 2565 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Exemplar images of spiny dendrites before and after induction of chemical LTD in bolus-loaded cells. (PDF 1382 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Chemically evoked LTD of identified parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses is not associated with changes in dendritic spines. (PDF 934 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4

Exemplar images of spiny dendrites before and after induction of chemical LTD in cells recorded in whole-cell voltage-clamp. (PDF 936 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 5

Bolus-loaded and whole cell-loaded Purkinje cells display fast motility of dendritic spines that is inhibited by cytochalasin D. (PDF 1634 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 6

Neither synaptically nor chemically induced LTD is associated with changes in spine morphology when analyzed in the entire population of dendritic protrusions, consisting of both overlapping and nonoverlapping spines. (PDF 1679 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 7

Depolarization-evoked spine retraction in an exemplar cell. (PDF 1070 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

Actin based fast spine motility persists in bolus-loaded Purkinje cells. (MOV 72 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 142 kb)

Supplementary Discussion (PDF 69 kb)

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Sdrulla, A., Linden, D. Double dissociation between long-term depression and dendritic spine morphology in cerebellar Purkinje cells. Nat Neurosci 10, 546–548 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1889

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