Figure 1.

Chronic ethanol exposure enhances the dendritic clustering of NMDA receptors. Immunohistochemistry of NR1 and confocal imaging was used to examine the effects of ethanol exposure on NMDA receptor clustering in hippocampal cultures. A-C, Confocal imaging of NR1 revealed punctate clustering of NMDA receptors in control cultures (A). A 4 d exposure of neuronal cultures to 25 mm ethanol (B) did not alter the cluster pattern, whereas 50 mm ethanol (C) exposure resulted in a striking increase in clustering. Scale bar, 40 μm. D, E, Quantification of the effects of ethanol on clustering revealed a significant increase in both NR1 cluster size (D) and density (E). The asterisk indicates a significant difference from control (p < 0.01, Student's t test; n = 90).