Developmental sex differences and effect of ovariectomy on the number of cortical pyramidal cell dendritic spines

Dendritic spines in the apical shafts of layer V pyramidal neurons were quantitatively assessed in Golgi preparations of visual cortex from male and female rats, 10-60 postnatal days old. The number of dendritic spines increased in both sexes from days 10 to 20. However, we found that 10-day-old females had a significantly greater number of dendritic spines than males of the same age. The absolute difference further increased with increasing age, reaching a maximum at 20 days. Then, the number of dendritic spines progressively decreased in females between days 20 and 60, showing a certain tendency to increase in males during the same period. As a result of this different developmental trend, the number of spines was similar in 60-day-old male and female rats. Ovariectomy of females, at day 30, prevented the decrease in the number of dendritic spines. These results indicate that spine development in the rat visual cortex is dependent on sex, suggesting a possible influence of sex steroids on pyramidal cell maturation.