Quantification of Dendritic Spines Remodeling under Physiological Stimuli and in Pathological Conditions

• Main Authors: Ewa Bączyńska, Katarzyna Karolina Pels, Subhadip Basu, Jakub Włodarczyk, Błażej Ruszczycki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: dendritic spines; dendritic spine analysis; spine remodeling; synaptic plasticity; structural plasticity; neuronal remodeling
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/8/4053

Numerous brain diseases are associated with abnormalities in morphology and density of dendritic spines, small membranous protrusions whose structural geometry correlates with the strength of synaptic connections. Thus, the quantitative analysis of dendritic spines remodeling in microscopic images is one of the key elements towards understanding mechanisms of structural neuronal plasticity and bases of brain pathology. In the following article, we review experimental approaches designed to assess quantitative features of dendritic spines under physiological stimuli and in pathological conditions. We compare various methodological pipelines of biological models, sample preparation, data analysis, image acquisition, sample size, and statistical analysis. The methodology and results of relevant experiments are systematically summarized in a tabular form. In particular, we focus on quantitative data regarding the number of animals, cells, dendritic spines, types of studied parameters, size of observed changes, and their statistical significance.