Fig. 6: Reduced miR-129-5p levels in astrocytes affect neuronal structure and plasticity.

A Schematic representation of the co-culturing experiment. B In the left panel, representative images of dendrites from PMN cultures are shown, to which astrocytes treated with sc-control or anti-miR-129 had been transferred. The right panel presents a bar graph quantifying dendritic spines. A total of 41 dendritic segments were analyzed for PMN cultures treated with sc-control, while 42 segments were analyzed for anti-miR-129-5p treated astrocytes (n = 6/group). An unpaired, two-tailed t-test was conducted (***P < 0.001). C PMN cultures were grown on Axion MEA plates, while primary astrocytes were initially cultured in T-75 flasks. At DIV 10, astrocytes were treated with anti-miR-129- or sc-control. At DIV 12 the astrocytes were co-cultured with the PMN cultures on the MEA plates. Spontaneous neuronal activity was recorded every hour for 10 min, with the entire recording session spanning 29 h. The bar plots show the results of MEA experiments. Comparison of the weighted mean firing rate (left panel), the number of network bursts (middle panel) and the neuronal activity score (right panel) were impaired in PNM that were co-cultures with astrocytes treated with anti-miR-129. A total of 29 recordings per group were conducted, with n = 6 samples per group. An unpaired, two-tailed t-test was performed (**P < 0.01 anti-miR-129 vs sc-control). Error bars indicate mean ± SD.