Fig. 2

LiCl rescues dendritic spine density deficit in mPFCx of Tbr1^layer5 CKOs at P180. Rbp4-cre::tdTomato^f/+ allele was used to label the dendrites of layer 5 neurons (A–D). The monochrome tdTomato signal (white) is shown from apical dendrites of saline-injected (A, B) and LiCl injected (C, D) Tbr1 CKOs at P181, 24 h after treatment. The Imaris software (v9.2.1) was used to analyze the dendritic spine density on apical dendrites of Tbr1^layer5 wildtype and Tbr1^layer5CKO neurons located within layers 2-4 of mPFCx (A–D). E Quantification of dendritic spine density on apical dendrites of Tbr1^layer5 wildtype (green) and Tbr1^layer5CKO neurons (orange) at P181. Spine density was improved 24 h after LiCl treatment (D), compared to the saline-injected control animals (B). Two-tailed T-test with Tukey correction was used for pairwise comparisons. Mann-Whitney ****p < 0.0001 (n = 10 dendrites), ns = not significant. Scale bar = 2 μm