Fig. 5.

Incubation of primary hippocampal neurons with recombinant gC1q domains from C1ql1–C1ql4 decreases synapse density. (A) Representative images of dendrites from cultured hippocampal neurons that were incubated with recombinant HA-tagged gC1q domains of the indicated C1ql proteins at DIV10 and analyzed at DIV14 by immunofluorescence staining with antibodies to MAP2 (to label dendrites) and vGlut1 or GAD65 as markers for excitatory and inhibitory synapses, respectively. (Scale bar: 10 μm.) (B) Summary graphs of excitatory and inhibitory synapse densities measured by staining with antibodies to vGlut1 and PSD95 (for excitatory synapses) or to GAD65 (for inhibitory synapses). Synapse densities were determined in neurons treated as described in A, with the incubation conditions indicated below each bar. Graphs show mean ± SEM of three independent experiments (two-tailed Student's t test; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01).