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. 2019 Jan 30;39(5):929–943. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1377-18.2018

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

DA increase reverts aberrant structural plasticity in the NAc of alcohol-withdrawn rats. a, Representative 3D reconstruction of the simultaneous visualization of Golgi-Cox stained MSNs. b, 3D reconstruction of the simultaneous visualization of Golgi-Cox stained MSNs (red), DA projections (TH+; green), PSD-95 (yellow), and long-thin spines (blue) in alcohol-naive control (CTRL), 12 h alcohol-withdrawn rats (EtOH-WDL), and 12 h alcohol-withdrawn rats administered with l-DOPA (EtOH-WDL + l-DOPA) Scale bar 20 μm. l-DOPA administration restores the aberrant structural plasticity of the synaptic triad in the NAc of withdrawn-rats. Indeed, l-DOPA (c) selectively expanded the density of long-thin spines to similar values as controls; (d) increased TH levels and (e) produced a complete restoring of the immunolabeling for PSD-95 in the NAc. Each bar represents the mean ± SEM; n = 6–8 rats. ***p < 0.001, *p < 0.05.