Dendritic spine plasticity and chronic alcoholism in rats.
Alcohol consumption in rats leads to degenerative changes in the cerebellar cortex (described elsewhere). Purkinje cells show a loss of dendritic spines, but some of the intact spines elongate to 3-4 times their normal length. This is postulated as a plastic change resulting from the degeneration of the original axon terminal contact with a consequent elongation of the spine 'in search of' and finally synapsing with still viable parallel fibre terminals in the vicinity. Under these conditions the circuitry is radically altered.
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains