Effects of Pcdh11x on the development of cortical neuronal dendritic branching

Objective To discuss the effects of Protocadherin 11 X-linked protein (Pcdh11x) on formation of neuronal dendritic branching. Methods In this study, using gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies, we count the number of neural dendritic branching, and analyzed the data with SPSS 13.0 software by one way ANOVA. Results Compared with the control GFP vector, Pcdh11x-shRNA increased, whereas pCAG-Pcdh11x-GFP decreased the number of primary and secondary dendrites. The number of dendritic tips was reduced in neurons overexpressing pCAG-Pcdh11x-GFP, whereas it was increased when Pcdh11x activity was inhibited by overexpression of Pcdh11x-shRNA. The effects of Pcdh11x-shRNA and pCAG-Pcdh11x-GFP on dendritic branching were confirmed by Sholl analysis. Therefore pcdh11x acts as a negtive regulator of dendritic branching in cultured cortical neurons from embryonic day 16 mouse embryos. Conclusions Pcdh11x Negatively Regulates Dendritic Branching, including primary dendrites, secondary dendrites, dendritic tips and crossing number. Key words: Pcdh11x; Central nervous system; Dendritic branching