Figure 5.

Ultrastructural morphometry of mitochondria within dendrites of motor neurons. Mitochondria within dendrites of motor neurons of the anterior horn of mice spinal cords are representatively reported. Mitochondria from dendrites of vehicle-treated G93A mice possessed swollen cristae (arrows) which do not appear neither in WT nor in lithium-treated G93A mice. Low magnification representative picture from vehicle-treated G93A mice shows giant dendrites (arrowhead) compared with WT mice, this is fully reversed by lithium as counted in graph (A). Graph (B) reports a slight non-significant reduction of mitochondrial density in vehicle-treated G93A mice compared with WT, which was not affected by lithium. In contrast, altered mitochondria were significantly increased in vehicle-treated G93A mice compared with WT mice, although lithium treatments restore the percentages of altered mitochondria in G93A to values similar to WT mice (C). The mitochondrial diameter in dendrites from G93A mice was slightly but significantly increased following vehicle, but it was normal following lithium (D). Values are the mean ± S.E.M. Comparisons between groups were made by using One-way ANOVA. ^*P ≤ 0.05 compared with other groups in graph. Scale bars: WT vehicle and WT lithium = 0.3 μm, G93A vehicle and G93A lithium = 0.4 μm, G93A vehicle (low magnification) = 1.3 μm.