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A Method to Visualize the Nanoscopic Morphology of Astrocytes In Vitro and In Situ

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Astrocytes

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1938))

Abstract

In recent years it has become apparent that astroglia are not only essential players in brain development, homeostasis, and metabolic support but are also important for the formation and regulation of synaptic circuits. Fine astrocytic processes that can be found in the vicinity of synapses undergo considerable structural plasticity associated with age- and use-dependent changes in neural circuitries. However, due to the extraordinary complex, essentially nanoscopic morphology of astroglia, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Here we detail a super-resolution microscopy approach, based on the single-molecule localisation microscopy (SMLM) technique direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) to visualize astroglial morphology on the nanoscale. This approach enables visualization of key morphological changes that occur in nanoscopic astrocyte processes, whose characteristic size falls below the diffraction limit of conventional optical microscopy.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Piotr Michaluk for cell culture preparations. This research was supported by Wellcome Trust Principal Fellowship (101896), European Research Council Advanced Grant (323113-NETSIGNAL), FP7 ITN (606950 EXTRABRAIN), and Russian Science Foundation grant (15-14-30000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, UK

    Janosch P. Heller & Dmitri A. Rusakov

  2. Laboratory of Brain Microcircuits, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

    Dmitri A. Rusakov

Authors
  1. Janosch P. Heller
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  2. Dmitri A. Rusakov
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Correspondence to Janosch P. Heller or Dmitri A. Rusakov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Barbara Di Benedetto

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Heller, J.P., Rusakov, D.A. (2019). A Method to Visualize the Nanoscopic Morphology of Astrocytes In Vitro and In Situ. In: Di Benedetto, B. (eds) Astrocytes. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1938. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9068-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9068-9_5

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