Journal
NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
Volume 90, Issue 2, Pages 467-471Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2008.04.008
Keywords
Alzheimer disease (AD); synaptic efficacy; spine geometry; Tg2576 mice; hippocampus; dorsolateral striatum (DLS)
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Tg2576 mice over-expressing human mutant APP (hAPPswe) show progressive impairments in hippocampal plasticity and episodic memory while fronto-striatal plasticity and procedural memory remain intact. Here we examine the status of synaptic connectivity in the hippocampus and the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) of 3- and 15-month-old Tg2576 and wild-type mice through the analysis of single dendritic spines microanatomy. We found that, in each region, all mice showed a global reduction in the size of spines as a function of age. Ageing mutants, however, exhibited smaller spines with shorter necks on CA1 pyramidal neurons but larger spines with longer necks on DLS spiny neurons compared to their age-matched wild-type controls. Our findings indicate that hippocampal and DLS dendritic spines in hAPPswe mutants undergo a different pattern of morphological changes over time and point to minor alterations in the microanatomy of DLS spines as a compensatory mechanism maintaining procedural abilities in the ageing mutants. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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