Abstract

During cortical synaptic development, thalamic axons must establish synaptic connections despite the presence of the more abundant intracortical projections. How thalamocortical synapses are formed and maintained in this competitive environment is unknown. Here, we show that astrocyte-secreted protein hevin is required for normal thalamocortical synaptic connectivity in the mouse cortex. Absence of hevin results in a profound, long-lasting reduction in thalamocortical synapses accompanied by a transient increase in intracortical excitatory connections. Three-dimensional reconstructions of cortical neurons from serial section electron microscopy (ssEM) revealed that, during early postnatal development, dendritic spines often receive multiple excitatory inputs. Immuno-EM and confocal analyses revealed that majority of the spines with multiple excitatory contacts (SMECs) receive simultaneous thalamic and cortical inputs. Proportion of SMECs diminishes as the brain develops, but SMECs remain abundant in Hevin-null mice. These findings reveal that, through secretion of hevin, astrocytes control an important developmental synaptic refinement process at dendritic spines.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. W Christopher Risher

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Sagar Patel

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Il Hwan Kim

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Akiyoshi Uezu

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Srishti Bhagat

    Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Daniel K Wilton

    Department of Neurology, FM Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Louis-Jan Pilaz

    Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Jonnathan Singh Alvarado

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Osman Y Calhan

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Debra L Silver

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Beth Stevens

    Department of Neurology, FM Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Nicole Calakos

    Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Scott H Soderling

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  14. Cagla Eroglu

    Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, United States
    For correspondence
    c.eroglu@cellbio.duke.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocol (# A195-11-08) of Duke University Medical Center. The mice were euthanized by following the approved protocols which were performed under avertin anesthesia, and every effort was made to minimize suffering.

Copyright

© 2014, Risher et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. W Christopher Risher
  2. Sagar Patel
  3. Il Hwan Kim
  4. Akiyoshi Uezu
  5. Srishti Bhagat
  6. Daniel K Wilton
  7. Louis-Jan Pilaz
  8. Jonnathan Singh Alvarado
  9. Osman Y Calhan
  10. Debra L Silver
  11. Beth Stevens
  12. Nicole Calakos
  13. Scott H Soderling
  14. Cagla Eroglu
(2014)
Astrocytes refine cortical connectivity at dendritic spines
eLife 3:e04047.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04047

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04047

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