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. 2016 Mar 24;73(18):3569–3582. doi: 10.1007/s00018-016-2181-6

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Retroviral expression of GSK-3β causes morphological alterations in newborn neurons. In a, the complete experimental design is presented. Retroviruses were injected into the hippocampus of tTO-GSK-3β mice. Two weeks after injection, mice were assigned to one of the four experimental categories: sedentary tet-OFF, sedentary tet-ON, exercise tet-OFF, or exercise tet-ON. b Quantification of the total dendritic length. It should be noted that GSK-3β activity caused a significant reduction in the total dendritic length of newborn neurons. In contrast, physical exercise increased this parameter in exercise tet-OFF mice. Interestingly, physical activity partially reversed the alterations caused by GSK-3β overexpression. However, significant differences were observed between exercise tet-OFF and exercise tet-ON mice. c Sholl’s analysis. GSK-3β activity caused alterations in the morphology of the dendritic tree of sedentary tet-ON mice. Physical exercise increased dendritic branching in exercise tet-OFF mice and normalized morphological alterations in exercise tet-ON mice. d–g Representative images of the cellular morphology of newborn neurons in sedentary tet-OFF (d), sedentary tet-ON (e), exercise tet-OFF (f), and exercise tet-ON (g) mice. h Quantification of the length of the primary apical dendrite. GSK-3β overexpression decreased this parameter in sedentary tet-ON mice, whereas physical exercise caused an increase in sedentary tet-OFF mice and normalized the alterations in exercise tet-ON mice. i Migration into the GL. GSK-3β increased the distance migrated by newborn neurons in sedentary tet-ON mice. Exercise reversed these alterations in exercise tet-ON mice. ML molecular layer, GL granule layer, H hilus. Blue scale bar 100 µm. Asterisks indicate significant differences compared to sedentary tet-OFF mice. Hashes indicate significant differences compared to sedentary tet-ON mice (*0.01 < p < 0.05) (**0.001 < p < 0.01) (***p < 0.001) (#0.01 < p < 0.05) (##0.001 < p < 0.01) (### p < 0.001) (!0.1 > p > 0.05)