Characterization of synaptic structural plasticity in mouse spinal dorsal horn neurons

Qin Ru; Jennifer Magnusson; Lingyong Li

doi:10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102752

Characterization of synaptic structural plasticity in mouse spinal dorsal horn neurons

STAR Protoc. 2023 Dec 15;4(4):102752. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102752. Epub 2023 Dec 2.

Authors

Qin Ru¹, Jennifer Magnusson², Lingyong Li³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health and Kinesiology, School of Physical Education, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China; Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: ruqin@jhun.edu.cn.
² Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35025, USA.
³ Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35025, USA. Electronic address: lingyongli@uabmc.edu.

Abstract

Here, we present a pipeline for the characterization of synaptic structural plasticity in mouse spinal dorsal horn (SDH) neurons. We describe steps for the intra-SDH microinjection of the EGFP virus to sparsely label L4 SDH neurons without laminectomy, wide dynamic range neuron imaging, dendritic spine morphometric analysis, and F-actin to G-actin ratio measurement. This protocol can be applied to investigate the synaptic structural plasticity mechanisms in the SDH as well as in the brain. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Li et al. (2023).¹.

Keywords: Neuroscience; Protein expression and purification; Signal Transduction.

MeSH terms

Animals
Mice
Neuronal Plasticity* / physiology
Posterior Horn Cells* / physiology

Abstract

MeSH terms

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