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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Post-embedding Immunogold Labeling of Synaptic Proteins in Hippocampal Slice Cultures
Published on: April 3, 2013
Gap junctions on hippocampal mossy fiber axons demonstrated by thin-section electron microscopy and freeze fracture
Farid Hamzei-Sichani1, Naomi Kamasawa, William G M Janssen
1Program in Neural and Behavioral Science, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. fh81@alumni-mail.gs.columbia.edu
Abstract:
Gap junctions have been postulated to exist between the axons of excitatory cortical neurons based on electrophysiological, modeling, and dye-coupling data. Here, we provide ultrastructural evidence for axoaxonic gap junctions in dentate granule cells. Using combined confocal laser scanning microscopy, thin-section transmission electron microscopy, and grid-mapped freeze-fracture replica immunogold labeling, 10 close appositions revealing axoaxonic gap junctions ( approximately 30-70 nm in diameter) were found between pairs of mossy fiber axons ( approximately 100-200 nm in diameter) in the stratum lucidum of the CA3b field of the rat ventral hippocampus, and one axonal gap junction ( approximately 100 connexons) was found on a mossy fiber axon in the CA3c field of the rat dorsal hippocampus. Immunogold labeling with two sizes of gold beads revealed that connexin36 was present in that axonal gap junction. These ultrastructural data support computer modeling and in vitro electrophysiological data suggesting that axoaxonic gap junctions play an important role in the generation of very fast (>70 Hz) network oscillations and in the hypersynchronous electrical activity of epilepsy.
