Experience-dependent synaptic plasticity in V1 occurs without microglial CX3CR1

Brief monocular deprivation (MD) shifts ocular dominance and reduces the density of thalamic synapses in layer 4 of the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). We found that microglial lysosome content is also increased as a result of MD. Previous studies have shown that the microglial fractalkine recepto...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Maher, Erin E., Welsh, Christina A., Stevens, Beth, Erisir, Alev, Schecter, Rachel Ward, Bear, Mark
Other Authors: Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Format: Article
Published: Society for Neuroscience 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115288
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1986-4207
Description
Summary:Brief monocular deprivation (MD) shifts ocular dominance and reduces the density of thalamic synapses in layer 4 of the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). We found that microglial lysosome content is also increased as a result of MD. Previous studies have shown that the microglial fractalkine receptor CX3CR1 is involved in synaptic development and hippocampal plasticity.Wetherefore tested the hypothesis that neuron-to-microglial communication via CX3CR1 is an essential component of visual cortical development and plasticity in male mice. Our data show that CX3CR1 is not required for normal development of V1 responses to visual stimulation, multiple forms of experience-dependent plasticity, or the synapse loss that accompanies MD in layer 4. By ruling out an essential role for fractalkine signaling, our study narrows the search for understanding how microglia respond to active synapse modification in the visual cortex. Keywords: microglia; ocular dominance plasticity; stimulus-selective response potentiation; synaptic plasticity; visual cortex