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. 2019 Nov 20;8:e48373. doi: 10.7554/eLife.48373

Table 2. Comparative quantitative analysis of various synaptic parameters in L4 and L5 of the TLN.

Mean ± SD Median IQR CV Skewness Variance
Synaptic boutons Layers
Surface area (µm²) L4 2.50 ± 1.78 2.05 1.67 0.72 1.97 3.24
 L5*** 6.09 ± 0.92 6.05 0.87 0.15 4.49 23.04
Volume (µm³) L4 0.16 ± 0.16 0.11 0.12 1.01 2.89 0.03
 L5*** 0.63 ± 0.18 0.63 0.21 0.29 2.05 0.46
Active zones
PreAZ surface area (µm²) L4 0.13 ± 0.07 0.11 0.08 0.54 1.35 0.005
 L5*** 0.23 ± 0.05 0.22 0.07 0.22 1.86 0.03
PSD surface area (µm²) L4 0.13 ± 0.07 0.11 0.08 0.53 1.44 0.005
 L5*** 0.29 ± 0.15 0.23 0.16 0.45 2.77 0.06
Cleft width (nm)
Lateral L4 14.11 ± 0.69 14.43 1.19 0.05 0.74 8.86
 L5*** 17.25 ± 2.39 17.51 3.74 0.13 1.14 20.73
Central L4 16.47 ± 1.85 15.72 3.26 0.11 0.80 17.09
 L5*** 19.05 ± 2.94 18.85 2.95 0.15 1.82 30.84
Mitochondria
Volume (µm³) L4 0.03 ± 0.04 0.02 0.02 1.04 3.71# 0.001
 L5*** 0.12 ± 0.09 0.07 0.16 0.87 8.22 50.30
% to the total volume L4 n.s. 13.11 ± 6.20 12.78 9.25 0.47 0.17 38.47
 L5 12.04 ± 1.20 11.89 2.18 0.10 0.57 23.04
Synaptic vesicles
Total number L4*** 1820.64 ± 980.34 1544.5 1119.5 0.54 0.91 961066.59
 L5 1518.52 ± 303.18 1347.21 541.98 0.19 2.39 1655452.24
Diameter (nm) L4 19.80 ± 5.63 18.00 0.28 3.41 2.10 31.69
 L5*** 36.69 ± 1.71 37.02 3.26 0.04 −2.07 153.21
Volume (µm³) L4 0.01 ± 0.01 0.01 0.01 1.28 3.95# 0.0002
 L5*** 0.05 ± 0.02 0.05 0.03 0.4 3.60# 0.002
Pool size of SVs
Putative RRP at p10 nm L4*** 20.20 ± 18.58 17 27.25 0.92 1.11 345.04
 L5 5.42 ± 4.09 4.93 6.29 0.75 2.17 39.93
Putative RRP at p20 nm L4*** 48.59 ± 39.02 41 53 0.80 1.17 1523.14
 L5 15.21 ± 9.02 13.55 16.34 0.59 2.06 206.69
Putative RP 60–200 nm L4*** 382.1 ± 248.23 313 376.79 0.65 1.41 61617.55
 L5 181.86 ± 27.05 180.89 47.42 0.15 1.25 11469.97
Putative resting pool > 200 nm L4 1251.82 ± 471.17 541 471.17 0.38 1.70 87678.29
 L5 n.s. 1264.07 ± 301.77 1150.76 540.39 0.24 0.66 72853.49

Summary of various structural parameter measurements provided from the detailed 3D-volume reconstructions of SBs in L4 (present study) and L5 (Yakoubi et al., 2019) of the human TLN. Mean ± SD, Median, Interquartile Range, CVs, Skewness and Variance were given for each parameter in all patients investigated. #: Values with a skew >3 indicating non-normal distributions. Abbreviations: p10 nm, p20 nm: perimeter 10 and 20 nm from AZ (see Materials and methods), n.s: not significant, ***p≤0.001.