Fig. 1: Traumatic brain injury triggers a contralesional decrease in spine density and time-dependent variations of the rate of eliminated /formed spines on dendrites of GFP-M mice analyzed using two-photon in vivo imaging.
a Scheme of the moderate brain injury depicting the flat-edged impactor used to lesion the brain (S1: primary somatosensory cortex; CCI: controlled cortical impact). b Scheme of the irregular ladder rung test used to evaluate sensorimotor recovery following traumatic brain injury and quantification (mean ± SEM) of the number of mistakes at baseline and following the injury. Data are analyzed with a Friedman test followed by uncorrected Dunn’s test. ***:p = 0.0001 3d vs Baseline; *:p = 0.0481 7d vs Baseline; ##p = 0.0044 at 14d, 21d vs 3d. c Scheme of the experimental design and timeline of the two-photon in vivo imaging. d Representative timelapse series of an apical dendrite from a layer V neuron in GFP-M mice assessed at the indicated experimental time point and followed up to 18d post-injury. B: Baseline; Scale bar: 10 μm. Cyan arrowhead indicates the position of a lost spine, green dot indicate stable spines present throughout the entire investigational period, and fushia asterisk indicates gained spines. e Quantification (mean ± SEM) of spine density at different time points post-injury (dendrites are color-coded per animal). Data are analyzed with one-way RM Anova followed by Dunnett’s test. ***p = 0.0001 3 dpi vs B1; ***p < 0.0001 6, 9, 12, 15, 18dpi vs B1. f Average of elimination and formation rate of spines in GFP-M mice. Data in (e and f) come from 81 dendritic stretches, 10,191 spines followed over time and n = 4 animals. Data are presented as mean ± SEM and analyzed with two-way RM Anova followed by Tukey test. *p = 0.0146 3 dpi vs B2 eliminated vs formed; *p = 0.0287 12 dpi vs 15 dpi eliminated vs formed; *p = 0.0146 15 dpi vs 18 dpi eliminated vs formed. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. B1: Baseline 1; B2: Baseline 2.
