Excessive Astrocyte-Derived Neurotrophin-3 Contributes to the Abnormal Neuronal Dendritic Development in a Mouse Model of Fragile X Syndrome
Figure 1
Different dendritic morphology of cortical neurons cocultured with WT and KO astrocytes.
A, Astrocytes from WT and KO mice indicated by the astrocytic marker GFAP (green) and nucleic staining Hoechst33258 (blue). Scale bar = 50 µm. The average area of single astrocyte was similar between the WT and KO mice. n = 136 WT astrocytes, n = 145 KO astrocytes from three independent experiments. B, Western blot analysis showed the expression of FMRP in WT astrocytes, but not in KO astrocytes. C, Neurons stained with the neuronal dendritic marker MAP2 (red) and nucleic staining Hoechst33258 (blue) at DIV 7. C1, The images are representative WT neurons cocultured with WT and KO astrocytes, respectively. Scale bar = 50 µm. C2, Percentage of WT neurons with at least two short (<50 µm) dendrites. C3, The total dendritic length per cell of WT neurons cocultured with WT and KO astrocytes. C2–C3: the number of neurons in WT astrocytes group: n = 235 neurons, KO astrocytes group: n = 212 neurons. Data were from three independent experiments. **P<0.01 compared with the WT astrocytes. C4, The images are representative KO neurons cocultured with WT and KO astrocytes, respectively. Scale bar = 50 µm. C5, Percentage of KO neurons with at least two short (<50 µm) dendrites. C6, The total dendritic length per cell of KO neurons cocultured with WT and KO astrocytes. C5–C6: the number of neurons in WT astrocytes group: n = 249 neurons, KO astrocytes group: n = 198 neurons. Data were from three independent experiments. **P<0.01 compared with the WT astrocytes.