Chronic imaging of dendritic spine morphology in 5xFAD-M hybrid line mice of Alzheimer’s disease model

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder of neural structures in different areas of the brain. Loss of synapses is a key stage in the development of AD and it precedes significant loss of neurons. However, the mechanisms of synapse loss are uncertain. Structural and functional changes in synapses are interrelated with the morphology of postsynaptic formations – dendritic spines. This paper describes the implementation of the technology of chronic imaging of dendritic spines in transgenic animals using the methods of multiphoton fluorescence microscopy. Mice of the 5xFAD-M hybrid line were used. 5xFAD-M was derived by crossing transgenic mice with expressions of green fluorescent protein GFP in individual neurons of the brain (M-Line) and a mouse model of AD (5xFAD line). Methodological achievements revealed the multi-day dynamics of the density of dendritic spines in M-Line and 5xFAD-M mice. Transformations of morphological types of spikes were revealed during a long period of observations.