PMID- 27683544 OWN - NLM STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE DCOM- 20160929 LR - 20201001 IS - 1662-5102 (Print) IS - 1662-5102 (Electronic) IS - 1662-5102 (Linking) VI - 10 DP - 2016 TI - Computer Simulations Support a Morphological Contribution to BDNF Enhancement of Action Potential Generation. PG - 209 LID - 10.3389/fncel.2016.00209 [doi] LID - 209 AB - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates both action potential (AP) generation and neuron morphology. However, whether BDNF-induced changes in neuron morphology directly impact AP generation is unclear. We quantified BDNF's effect on cultured cortical neuron morphological parameters and found that BDNF stimulates dendrite growth and addition of dendrites while increasing both excitatory and inhibitory presynaptic inputs in a spatially restricted manner. To gain insight into how these combined changes in neuron structure and synaptic input impact AP generation, we used the morphological parameters we gathered to generate computational models. Simulations suggest that BDNF-induced neuron morphologies generate more APs under a wide variety of conditions. Synapse and dendrite addition have the greatest impact on AP generation. However, subtle alterations in excitatory/inhibitory synapse ratio and strength have a significant impact on AP generation when synaptic activity is low. Consistent with these simulations, BDNF rapidly enhances spontaneous activity in cortical cultures. We propose that BDNF promotes neuron morphologies that are intrinsically more efficient at translating barrages of synaptic activity into APs, which is a previously unexplored aspect of BDNF's function. FAU - Galati, Domenico F AU - Galati DF AD - Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO, USA. FAU - Hiester, Brian G AU - Hiester BG AD - Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO, USA. FAU - Jones, Kevin R AU - Jones KR AD - Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO, USA. LA - eng GR - R01 EY014998/EY/NEI NIH HHS/United States PT - Journal Article DEP - 20160914 PL - Switzerland TA - Front Cell Neurosci JT - Frontiers in cellular neuroscience JID - 101477935 PMC - PMC5021759 OTO - NOTNLM OT - BDNF OT - computational model OT - excitatory OT - inhibitory OT - plasticity EDAT- 2016/09/30 06:00 MHDA- 2016/09/30 06:01 PMCR- 2016/01/01 CRDT- 2016/09/30 06:00 PHST- 2016/05/19 00:00 [received] PHST- 2016/08/22 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2016/09/30 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2016/09/30 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2016/09/30 06:01 [medline] PHST- 2016/01/01 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - 10.3389/fncel.2016.00209 [doi] PST - epublish SO - Front Cell Neurosci. 2016 Sep 14;10:209. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2016.00209. eCollection 2016.