title: Glia selectively approach synapses on thin dendritic spines.
abstract: This paper examines the relationship between the morphological modality of 189 dendritic spines and the surrounding astroglia using full three-dimensional reconstructions of neuropil fragments. An integrative measure of three-dimensional glial coverage confirms that thin spine postsynaptic densities are more tightly surrounded by glia. This distinction suggests that diffusion-dependent synapse-glia communication near 'learning' synapses (associated with thin spines) could be stronger than that near 'memory' synapses (associated with larger spines).
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Health Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
authors.forename: Nikolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Medvedev
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Health Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK Institute of Cell Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 142290, Russia.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, University of Bonn Medical School, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Henneberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Health Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kraev
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK d.rusakov@ion.ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Dmitri A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rusakov
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Health Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK m.g.stewart@open.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000502:physiology*; D019581:Neuropil / Q000502:physiology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: glia protection; synapses; thin spines