title: A single-cell model to study changes in neuronal fractal dimension.
abstract: Many methods have been developed to quantify neuronal morphology: measurement of neurite length, neurite number, etc. However, none of these approaches provides a comprehensive view of the complexity of neuronal morphology. In this work we have analyzed the evaluation of fractal dimension (D) as a tool to represent and quantify changes in complexity of the dendritic arbor, in in vitro cultures grown under low-density conditions. Neurons grown in isolation developed a bipolar morphology corresponding to a fractal dimension close to the unit. The analysis showed that neuronal complexity increased when cells were incubated with a depolarizing potassium concentration and there was a correlation with an increase in fractal dimension (D5 mM KCl = 1.08 +/- 0.01, D25 mM KCl =1.25 +/- 0.01). We conclude that fractal dimension is a suitable parameter to quantify changes in neuronal morphological complexity.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: L N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Borodinsky
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Fiszman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology; D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free / Q000494:pharmacology; D017709:Fractals; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013744:Tetanus Toxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free; D013744:Tetanus Toxin