Figure 3. Astroglial CD38 promotes synapse formation of cortical neurons in the mPFC.

• A
  Immunohistochemistry for VGlut1 (green) and PSD95 (magenta) in the mPFC of ctrl^P10 and CD38 AS‐cKO^P10 mice at P70. VGlut1 and PSD95 channels are separated in the middle panels. The right panels are colocalized VGlut1 and PSD95 puncta (synapses). Scale bar, 10 μm.
• B–D
  Quantification of VGlut1, PSD95 and synapse density in the mPFC of CD38 AS‐cKO^P10 and ctrl^P10 mice (n = 5 animals per genotype, two‐tailed unpaired Student's t‐test (B, C), Mann–Whitney U‐test (D)).
• E
  Representative western blots of VGlut1, PSD95, CD38, and β‐actin in the mPFC of ctrl^P10 and CD38 AS‐cKO^P10 mice at P70 (two animals per genotype are shown).
• F–H
  Relative optical density of VGlut1, PSD95, and CD38 normalized to that of the loading control β‐actin (n = 4 animals per genotype, two‐tailed unpaired Student's t‐test).
• I
  Representative images of cortical neurons cultured for 14 days in vitro (DIV) in non‐conditioned growth medium (−ACM) or astrocyte conditioned medium (ACM) of WT or CD38 KO mice. Insets show individual channels for VGlut1 (green) and PSD95 (magenta) staining, as well as the merged image. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI. Scale bar, 20 μm (main image) and 10 μm (inset).
• J
  Quantification of synapse number in cortical neurons cultured in –ACM, WT ACM and CD38 KO ACM (n = 20 cells per condition from four independent cultures, one‐way ANOVA followed by Tukey–Kramer test).

Data information: Data represent means ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.

Source data are available online for this figure.