New publication on CXCL12 control of dendritic spine dynamics

The lab recently published new research in the Journal of Neuroscience detailing how the chemokine CXCL12 modulates dendritic spine dynamics on cortical neurons using modern live imaging and fluorescent labeling approaches. The group found CXCL12 helps neurons form new dendritic spines, stabilize existing spines, and enhance spines’ expression of synaptic scaffold proteins and channels. These outcomes also influence structured neuronal activity in multi-electrode array cultures, highlighting their functional relevance. Interestingly, CXCL12 achieved these outcomes using inhibitory neurons as an intermediate, which typically lack dendritic spines compared to excitatory cortical neurons.

First author Dr. Chunta Ho’s outstanding microscopy was also honored by the journal, which selected his image of a dual-transduced neuron as the journal cover!

The manuscript is open access and available to read here.