Functional and structural properties of dentate granule cells with hilar basal dendrites in mouse entorhino-hippocampal slice cultures

PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e48500. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048500. Epub 2012 Nov 7.

Abstract

During postnatal development hippocampal dentate granule cells (GCs) often extend dendrites from the basal pole of their cell bodies into the hilar region. These so-called hilar basal dendrites (hBD) usually regress with maturation. However, hBDs may persist in a subset of mature GCs under certain conditions (both physiological and pathological). The functional role of these hBD-GCs remains not well understood. Here, we have studied hBD-GCs in mature (≥18 days in vitro) mouse entorhino-hippocampal slice cultures under control conditions and have compared their basic functional properties (basic intrinsic and synaptic properties) and structural properties (dendritic arborisation and spine densities) to those of neighboring GCs without hBDs in the same set of cultures. Except for the presence of hBDs, we did not detect major differences between the two GC populations. Furthermore, paired recordings of neighboring GCs with and without hBDs did not reveal evidence for a heavy aberrant GC-to-GC connectivity. Taken together, our data suggest that in control cultures the presence of hBDs on GCs is neither sufficient to predict alterations in the basic functional and structural properties of these GCs nor indicative of a heavy GC-to-GC connectivity between neighboring GCs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Dendrites / physiology*
  • Dentate Gyrus / cytology*
  • Dentate Gyrus / physiology*
  • Entorhinal Cortex / cytology*
  • Entorhinal Cortex / physiology*
  • Female
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mossy Fibers, Hippocampal / physiology
  • Receptors, Cell Surface / metabolism
  • Synapses / physiology
  • Synaptic Potentials / physiology
  • Tissue Culture Techniques

Substances

  • Receptors, Cell Surface

Grants and funding

The work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG DE 551-10 to TD), by a Young Investigators Grant (Faculty of Medicine Goethe-University to AV), German-Israeli Foundation (GIF G-2239-2096.1/2009 to AV) and the August Scheidel-Foundation (to AV). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.