FIGURE 1.

GluN2A-P552R expression exerts dendrotoxicity in rat primary cortical cultures which can be rescued by treatment with memantine. Representative images of cortical neurons transfected with GFP and either pCI-neo (empty vector), GluN2A, or GluN2A-P552R. Top row shows untreated neurons and bottom row shows neurons co-treated with 50 µM memantine (A). Quantification of dendritic blebs per coverslip (blebs/CS) revealed significantly more blebs in GluN2A-P552R transfected neurons as compared to those transfected with pCI-neo or GluN2A (B). This difference is abolished by treatment with 50 µM memantine (C). Data are expressed as mean ± SEM from three independent experiments with three coverslips per transfection condition in each experiment (**p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA/Tukey post-hoc, n = 9).