Fig. 3

Dendritic spine density. Representative image of a layer V pyramidal neuron in the somatosensory cortex meeting the selection criteria for dendritic spine quantification (a, left panel; arrow indicating apical dendrite; scalebar = 25 μm) and representative cropped images from single focal planes demonstrating dendritic spine resolution power of microscopy technique (a, middle panel: WT + SAL; right panel: KO + SAL; scalebar = 2 μm). Apical dendritic spines were counted in layer V pyramidal neurons in the somatosensory cortex of 7-month-old male WT and KO mice following 26 days of treatment with SAL or acamprosate (300 mg/kg). Data were analyzed by a three-way mixed factor ANOVA with gene and drug as between factors and segment as a within factor. There was a significant main effect of segment and interactions of gene×drug (b) and drug×segment were approaching but did not reach significance. As expected, the number of spine counts increased in all groups as distance increased from the soma (c). Data shown are LS mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05; †p < 0.1