title: Morphometric analysis of feedforward pathways from the primary somatosensory area (S1) of rats.
abstract: We used biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) to anterogradely label individual axons projecting from primary somatosensory cortex (S1) to four different cortical areas in rats. A major goal was to determine whether axon terminals in these target areas shared morphometric similarities based on the shape of individual terminal arbors and the density of two bouton types: en passant (Bp) and terminaux (Bt). Evidence from tridimensional reconstructions of isolated axon terminal fragments (n=111) did support a degree of morphological heterogeneity establishing two broad groups of axon terminals. Morphological parameters associated with the complexity of terminal arbors and the proportion of beaded Bp vs stalked Bt were found to differ significantly in these two groups following a discriminant function statistical analysis across axon fragments. Interestingly, both groups occurred in all four target areas, possibly consistent with a commonality of presynaptic processing of tactile information. These findings lay the ground for additional work aiming to investigate synaptic function at the single bouton level and see how this might be associated with emerging properties in postsynaptic targets.
authors.affiliation: Instituto do Cérebro, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brasil.
authors.forename: A L de
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Sá
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Neuroplasticidade, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brasil.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Bahia
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Neuroproteção e Neurorregeneração Experimental, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brasil.
authors.forename: V C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Correa
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Neuroplasticidade, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brasil.
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Neuroplasticidade, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brasil.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Batista
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Neuroproteção e Neurorregeneração Experimental, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brasil.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gomes-Leal
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Estatística, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brasil.
authors.forename: A L S
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Pinho
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Fronteiras em Neurociências, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Houzel
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Investigações em Neurodegeneração e Infecção, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brasil.
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Picanço-Diniz
authors.affiliation: Instituto do Cérebro, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brasil.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pereira
mesh_terms: D019412:Anatomy, Cross-Sectional; D000818:Animals; D001710:Biotin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D003911:Dextrans; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D010784:Photomicrography; D017729:Presynaptic Terminals / Q000502:physiology; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012016:Reference Values; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003911:Dextrans; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; C076397:biotinylated dextran amine; D001710:Biotin