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CREB Regulates Experience-Dependent Spine Formation and Enlargement in Mouse Barrel Cortex
Annabella Pignataro1, Antonella Borreca2, Martine Ammassari-Teule3
1Laboratory of Psychobiology, Santa Lucia Foundation, 00143 Rome, Italy ; "Tor Vergata" University, 00173 Rome, Italy.
Neural Plasticity
|June 16, 2015
Summary
Sensory deprivation alters dendritic spine structure in the barrel cortex. cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is crucial for these activity-dependent synaptic rearrangements in response to environmental changes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Synaptic Plasticity
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Experience-dependent modifications of neuronal circuits involve dendritic spine rearrangements.
- The cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is known to influence spine changes, but its role in environmental interaction-induced plasticity is less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of CREB in activity-dependent dendritic spine rearrangements in the barrel cortex following sensory deprivation.
- To examine the effects of whisker trimming on dendritic spine morphology in wild-type and CREB-downregulated mice.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a whisker trimming model to induce sensory deprivation in mice.
- Employed a transgenic mouse model with downregulated CREB (mCREB mice).
- Analyzed dendritic spine morphology in specific layers of the barrel cortex (contralateral and ipsilateral to trimming).
Main Results:
- Sensory deprivation increased thin spines in layer V of the contralateral barrel cortex in wild-type mice, but not in mCREB mice.
- In the ipsilateral barrel cortex, whisker trimming led to CREB-dependent enlargement of dendritic spines.
- Demonstrated that CREB regulates structural synaptic rearrangements associated with dendritic spine dynamics.
Conclusions:
- CREB plays a critical role in regulating dendritic spine dynamics and synaptic circuit rearrangements.
- These CREB-mediated changes in synaptic structure are essential for adapting brain connectivity to environmental alterations.
