Brief Running Activated vs Non-activated Neurons RNAseq. Mus musculus musculus strain:C57BL/6 | breed:Fos-TRAP

The benefits of exercise for brain health are well accepted. However, most but whether a limited exposure to exercise can alter brain structures underlying plasticity has not been determined. Using conditional Fos-TRAP mice, we marked neurons within the hippocampal dentate gyrus that had been activated by a 2 hr exposure to voluntary exercise. Within this population comprising approximately 0.1% of mature granule cells, the dendritic spine density and amplitude of excitatory post-synaptic potentials (EPSCs) were increased at 3 days after exercise and reverted to baseline after 7 days. Laser capture microdissection and RNASeq revealed that the most highly induced transcript in activated neurons was Mtss1L, an inverse-BAR protein that we showed promotes filapodia formation. Reducing Mtss1L expression prevented the exercise-induced increase in spine density and EPSC amplitude. These data indicate that a brief exposure to exercise induces the expression of a protein that initiates formation of new synaptic spines.