CREB Regulates Experience-Dependent Spine Formation and Enlargement in Mouse Barrel Cortex

Neural Plast. 2015:2015:651469. doi: 10.1155/2015/651469. Epub 2015 May 5.

Abstract

Experience modifies synaptic connectivity through processes that involve dendritic spine rearrangements in neuronal circuits. Although cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) has a key function in spines changes, its role in activity-dependent rearrangements in brain regions of rodents interacting with the surrounding environment has received little attention so far. Here we studied the effects of vibrissae trimming, a widely used model of sensory deprivation-induced cortical plasticity, on processes associated with dendritic spine rearrangements in the barrel cortex of a transgenic mouse model of CREB downregulation (mCREB mice). We found that sensory deprivation through prolonged whisker trimming leads to an increased number of thin spines in the layer V of related barrel cortex (Contra) in wild type but not mCREB mice. In the barrel field controlling spared whiskers (Ipsi), the same trimming protocol results in a CREB-dependent enlargement of dendritic spines. Last, we demonstrated that CREB regulates structural rearrangements of synapses that associate with dynamic changes of dendritic spines. Our findings suggest that CREB plays a key role in dendritic spine dynamics and synaptic circuits rearrangements that account for new brain connectivity in response to changes in the environment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein / metabolism
  • Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein / physiology*
  • Dendritic Spines / metabolism
  • Dendritic Spines / physiology*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Neuronal Plasticity*
  • Phosphorylation
  • Sensory Deprivation / physiology
  • Somatosensory Cortex / metabolism
  • Somatosensory Cortex / physiology*
  • Synapses / metabolism
  • Synapses / physiology*

Substances

  • Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein