Regehr Lab Approaches

			SERIAL EM In order to understand how synapse works it is extremely helpful to know the ultrastructure of the synapse. In the past we have used serial electron microscopy to determine the ultrastructure of some of the synapses that we study. In these studies we cut a series of thin slices and then use software to convert a series of 2 dimensional images into a 3 dimensional representation of the cell.


			Three-dimensional reconstruction of granule cell presynaptic boutons. In this example six reconstructed granule cell presynaptic boutons are shown, with mitochondria indicated in tan, vesicles indicated by blue and the postsynaptic density indicated in red. Associated with each bouton is the postsynaptic density and the position of the morphologically docked vesicles that are well positioned next to the plasma membrane.			Three-dimensional reconstruction of a mossy fiber presynaptic bouton. Red regions indicate postsynaptic densities where the mossy fiber forms synaptic contacts onto granule cell dendrites. The yellow regions are in contact with glia.

WADE REGEHR DEPARTMENT OF NEUROBIOLOGY HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL