title: Barreloid Borders and Neuronal Activity Shape Panglial Gap Junction-Coupled Networks in the Mouse Thalamus.
abstract: The ventral posterior nucleus of the thalamus plays an important role in somatosensory information processing. It contains elongated cellular domains called barreloids, which are the structural basis for the somatotopic organization of vibrissae representation. So far, the organization of glial networks in these barreloid structures and its modulation by neuronal activity has not been studied. We have developed a method to visualize thalamic barreloid fields in acute slices. Combining electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, and electroporation in transgenic mice with cell type-specific fluorescence labeling, we provide the first structure-function analyses of barreloidal glial gap junction networks. We observed coupled networks, which comprised both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. The spread of tracers or a fluorescent glucose derivative through these networks was dependent on neuronal activity and limited by the barreloid borders, which were formed by uncoupled or weakly coupled oligodendrocytes. Neuronal somata were distributed homogeneously across barreloid fields with their processes running in parallel to the barreloid borders. Many astrocytes and oligodendrocytes were not part of the panglial networks. Thus, oligodendrocytes are the cellular elements limiting the communicating panglial network to a single barreloid, which might be important to ensure proper metabolic support to active neurons located within a particular vibrissae signaling pathway.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Claus
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Philippot
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.|Institute of Neuro- and Sensory Physiology, University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Griemsmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Aline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timmermann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jabs
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.|German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Sigmund-Freud-Str. 27, 53127 Bonn, Germany.|Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Henneberger
authors.affiliation: Cellular Neuroscience, Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, 13092 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kettenmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steinhäuser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018274:Electroporation; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D017629:Gap Junctions / Q000502:physiology*; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D020651:Ventral Thalamic Nuclei / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D005947:Glucose
keywords: astrocyte; barreloid; gap junction coupling; oligodendrocyte; thalamus