Fig. 4

Morphological abnormalities in Fmr1 KO hippocampal neurons are corrected by WT astrocytes with indirect co-culture. a Cumulative frequency distribution of spine lengths comparing Fmr1 KO neurons grown in the presence of a WT AFL or supplemented with WT ACM at 17 DIV. b Spine length is significantly reduced in Fmr1 KO neurons cultured with WT ACM or WT AFL. c Co-cultures with WT AFL or WT ACM reduced the proportion of immature spine phenotypes in the Fmr1 KO neurons. d Alternatively, WT ACM and WT AFL induced an increase in the formation of mature spines. e Fmr1 KO neurons supplemented with WT ACM increases the co-localization of excitatory pre- and postsynaptic proteins, synaptophysin and PSD-95. Similarly, WT AFL/Fmr1 KO neuron co-cultures enhance the number of co-localized puncta. One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction was used to analyze the data. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01; n = 50 neurons, N = 2 independent experiments