2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Studies on a novel regulatory mechanisms for neurotransmission through controlling the morphology of spine neck

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	17H04014
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	General anatomy (including histology/embryology)
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	SATO MAKOTO 大阪大学, 連合小児発達学研究科, 教授 (10222019)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	岡雄一郎大阪大学, 連合小児発達学研究科, 講師 (30614432) TIONG Sheena 大阪大学, 連合小児発達学研究科, 特任講師(常勤) (80771815)
Project Period (FY)	2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
Keywords	細胞機能形態学 / 解剖学 / 神経科学 / 脳・神経
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Learning induces morphological changes of the postsynaptic spines. However, 3D structure of the spine has not been intensively investigated. We here study the fine 3D structure of spines of hippocampal neurons by reconstructing the whole spine images using FIB-SEM. FIB-SEM allows us to examine the whole structure of the spine at high resolution. Unexpectedly, most stubby type spines, of which neck widths appeared to be as wide as the head diameters, belonged to the mushroom type; their neck widths were much narrow when they were observed from the different angles. This indicates that most necks of the spines are narrower compared to the heads, suggesting that the spine neck works as the limiting region for the receptor transports between the dendritic shafts and the spine heads where synaptic transmission occurs.
Free Research Field	解剖学、神経科学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	後シナプス側であるスパインの形態変化は、学習の細胞基盤の一つである。しかし必ずしもその形態が正確に評価できていなかった。そこで、FIB-SEMを用いて、スパインの形態の正確な評価を試みた。結果、従来スパインの頚部が太くstubby型と考えられていたスパインのほとんどが、別角度からの観察では頚部の細いマッシュルーム型であった。また、頚部は従来考えられていたより細く、樹状突起とスパイン頭部との間を行き来する受容体にとり、頚部が律速部位となりうること、つまり、シナプス可塑性の一つの制御部位である可能性が考えられた。