Fig. 12.

Dendritic spines are present in control and neurotrophin-treated cultures. Cells from E16 (A,B) and E18 (C, D) hippocampus were fixed and stained with DiI. Images were taken in a confocal microscope from control (A, C) and BDNF plus NT-3-treated (B, D) cultures. E, Number of spines per unit length (10 μm) was analyzed as described elsewhere (Papa et al., 1995). The density of spines slightly decreased in neurotrophin-treated cultures. There was a marked difference in spine density between neurons derived from E16 and E18 hippocampus.