Synapse imaging of mouse models for developmental disorders

Shinji Tanaka, Shigeo Okabe

Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo

Austism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties of social communication and interaction as well as repetitive behaviors and restrictive interests. Although recent advances of genetic studies have identified hundreds of risk genes, it is still unclear how these genes cause behavioral phenotypes. A meaningful strategy to understand the mechanism of ASD may be to find common phenotypes among different mouse models of ASD. Two-photon microscopy enables us to observe the individual synapses with high resolution in the brain tissue of living animals. Here, we review the recent studies of two-photon in vivo synapse imaging that suggest an enhanced synapse turnover is a common phenotype across ASD mouse models.

Address correspondence to Dr. Shigeo Okabe, Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo (7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan)