Fig. 2.

Leptin rapidly increases the number and motility of dendritic filopodia. (A) Confocal images of a hippocampal neuron (11 DIC) transiently transfected with cytosolic EGFP. The region of interest was magnified and the images obtained at various time points (3–30 min) are shown in panel Aii. Under control conditions there are a few filopodia extending from dendrites and these had limited motility. Leptin (50 nM) treatment stimulated a rapid increase in number and motility of filopodia extending from the highlighted dendrite (arrow). (B) Histogram of the pooled data illustrating the relative change in the density and motility of filopodia following exposure to leptin (50 nM). *P < 0.05.