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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Analysis of Dendritic Spine Morphology in Cultured CNS Neurons
Published on: July 13, 2011
Organization and dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton during dendritic spine morphological remodeling
Anaël Chazeau1,2,3, Grégory Giannone4,5
1Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, University of Bordeaux, UMR 5297, 33000, Bordeaux, France.
Abstract:
In the central nervous system, most excitatory post-synapses are small subcellular structures called dendritic spines. Their structure and morphological remodeling are tightly coupled to changes in synaptic transmission. The F-actin cytoskeleton is the main driving force of dendritic spine remodeling and sustains synaptic plasticity. It is therefore essential to understand how changes in synaptic transmission can regulate the organization and dynamics of actin binding proteins (ABPs). In this review, we will provide a detailed description of the organization and dynamics of F-actin and ABPs in dendritic spines and will discuss the current models explaining how the actin cytoskeleton sustains both structural and functional synaptic plasticity.
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