+49 761 203 5056
birgit.boppel@anat.uni-freiburg.de
Neuroanatomy
Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology
  • Team
    • Team
    • Former Members
  • Research
    • Research Topics
      • Homeostatic Plasticity
      • Inflammation and Synaptic Plasticity
      • Non-invasive Brain Stimulation
    • Publications
    • Collaborations
  • Teaching
  • Resources
    • Electron Microscopy
    • GitHub Repo
    • Neuromorpho.org
  • News
    • Hot off the Press
    • New Anatomy Building
    • Vacancies
  • Contact

Spine apparatus mediates “all-or-nothing” communication switch between the spine head and dendrite

Posted on May 4, 2022

In a collaboration with Prof. Beck (Head of Neurosurgery Freiburg), we recently demonstrated plasticity of excitatory neurotransmission in the human neocortex (Lenz et al., Elife 2021), and found that synaptic plasticity is accompanied by ultrastructural changes of dendritic spines and a peculiar intracellular organelle found in a subset of spines – the spine apparatus organelle (SA).

The SA has been previously linked to the ability of murine neurons to express synaptic plasticity (e.g., Vlachos et al., 2009; 2013). The role of structural changes of SAs in synaptic plasticity, however, remains unknown – both in mice and humans.

 

Using serial transmission electron microscopy, 3D reconstructions and computer simulations of human dendritic spines in collaboration with the Prof. Haas, Prof. Beck (both Neurosurgery, Freiburg), and Prof. Queisser (Mathematics, Temple-University, USA), Viet Duc Bui (cand. med.; Neuroanatomy, Freiburg) and James Rosado (PhD candidate; Mathematics, Temple University, USA) studied the impact of human SAs on spine-to-dendrite calcium signaling, which plays a fundamental role in synaptic plasticity.

Our simulations revealed an “all-or-nothing” Ca2+ communication switch between spine heads and dendrites that is controlled by the interplay between Ryanodine Receptor densities, and the morphology of dendritic spines and SA in the spine neck region. These findings suggest that structural changes of SAs can serve calcium homeostasis during dendritic spine growth and may act as a structural switch for input-specific synaptic plasticity in human dendritic spines.

Rosado J*, Duc Bui V*, Haas CA, Beck J, Queisser G, Vlachos A (2022) Calcium modeling of spine apparatus-containing human dendritic spines demonstrates an “all-or-nothing” communication switch between the spine head and dendrite. PLoS Comput Biol 18(4): e1010069. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010069 *joint first authors

Link to the original publication: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010069

Previous Post
Invitation for applications – W3 Professur für Anatomie (NF Prof. Dr. K. Krieglstein)
Next Post
Live from Dissection to Lecture Hall

Recent Posts

  • Neuroanatomy Freiburg goes Instagram! January 11, 2023
  • A microfluidic perspective on tDCS December 27, 2022
  • Season’s Greetings December 22, 2022
  • Congratulations to Dimitrios Kleidonas December 15, 2022
  • Farewell to Prof. Dr. Bernd Heimrich November 9, 2022

Categories

  • News (10)
  • Science (7)
  • Teaching (3)
  • Uncategorized (2)

Contact

Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Dept. Neuroanatomy

Albertstraße 17
79104 Freiburg

+49 761 203 5056
birgit.boppel@anat.uni-freiburg.de

Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Vlachos

Head of Department

© 2023 Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Dept. Neuroanatomy

  • Imprint
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility