For example, in olfactory neurons, EM has shown dendritic synapses between Mitral cells and Interneurons. But are there ways to detect such contacts using fluorescence microscopy? Are there any proteins unique to dendrodendritic synapses that may be molecular markers for IHC?
This article may be of help.
Schätzle P1, Wuttke R, Ziegler U, Sonderegger P: Automated quantification of synapses by fluorescence microscopy.J Neurosci Methods. 2012 Feb 15;204(1):144-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2011.11.010. Epub 2011 Nov 11.
Behnam, your questions is an interesting one. Of course, there are many ways of detecting dendro-dendritic synapses without use of EM, but these are typically not conclusive.
Fluorescence and Ca2+ imaging can be applied for detecting dendro-dendtiric connections. Immuno-staining with detection of the presence of PSD proteins at dendtiric spines is another approach.
Check our perspective published in PNAS (Ovsepian and Dolly 2011), which discusses some relevant topics that might be of interest. Best, SV
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