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Review
. 2020 Dec 17:14:592607.
doi: 10.3389/fncel.2020.592607. eCollection 2020.

Synaptic Loss in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanistic Insights Provided by Two-Photon in vivo Imaging of Transgenic Mouse Models

Jaichandar Subramanian  1 , Julie C Savage  2 , Marie-Ève Tremblay  3   4   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Synaptic Loss in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanistic Insights Provided by Two-Photon in vivo Imaging of Transgenic Mouse Models

Jaichandar Subramanian et al. Front Cell Neurosci. .

Abstract

Synapse loss is the strongest correlate for cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. The mechanisms underlying synapse loss have been extensively investigated using mouse models expressing genes with human familial Alzheimer's disease mutations. In this review, we summarize how multiphoton in vivo imaging has improved our understanding of synapse loss mechanisms associated with excessive amyloid in the living animal brain. We also discuss evidence obtained from these imaging studies for the role of cell-intrinsic calcium dyshomeostasis and cell-extrinsic activities of microglia, which are the immune cells of the brain, in mediating synapse loss.

Keywords: amyloid mouse models; dendritic spines; in vivo imaging; microglia; two-photon.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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