Figure 2. AK treatments increased dendritic branching and spine density in MA rats. A, Imaris-generated build of the apical (bottom) and basal (top) dendrites of a CA1 pyramidal neuron from a 2.5-month-old rat. B, Sholl analyses show the number of intersections for apical and basal dendrites through the depth of each field: in both, MA-Veh rats had fewer intersections, and thus branches, than MA-AK rats. For basal dendrites, p = 0.047 for group effect, p < 0.001 for distance effect, two-way ANOVA; p = 0.04 for MA-AK versus MA-Veh; p = 0.622 for MA-AK versus young, 2.5 month olds; p = 0.20 for MA-Veh versus young, Tukey's test (apical field statistics in Results). C, Aggregate dendritic length (apical plus basal) for all groups (*p < 0.05 young vs MA-Veh, SNK test; MA-AK vs young, NS). D, Images of Lucifer yellow-filled spiny apical dendrites from MA-Veh and MA-AK rats. Scale bar, 2 μm. E, Graphs show spine density on apical secondary and basal dendrites (apical, p = 0.009, 1-way ANOVA; basal, p = 0.017, 1-way ANOVA; *p < 0.05, SNK test). Mean ± SEM values are shown; n = 6 for MA-Veh, 5 for MA-AK, and 7 for young group.