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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Ex Vivo Imaging of Postnatal Cerebellar Granule Cell Migration Using Confocal Macroscopy
Published on: May 12, 2015
Axonal motility and its modulation by activity are branch-type specific in the intact adult cerebellum
Hiroshi Nishiyama1, Masahiro Fukaya, Masahiko Watanabe
1Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 725 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Abstract:
We performed two-photon in vivo imaging of cerebellar climbing fibers (CFs; the terminal arbor of olivocerebellar axons) in adult mice. CF ascending branches innervate Purkinje cells while CF transverse branches show a near complete failure to form conventional synapses. Time-lapse imaging over hours or days revealed that ascending branches were very stable. However, transverse branches were highly dynamic, exhibiting rapid elongation and retraction and varicosity turnover. Thus, different branches of the same axon, with different innervation patterns, display branch type-specific motility in the adult cerebellum. Furthermore, dynamic changes in transverse branch length were almost completely suppressed by pharmacological stimulation of olivary firing.
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