Umbelliferone-induced recovery of postsynaptic density structure revealed by the reanalysis of public electron microscopy data

Abstract

Public biological data repositories not only ensure research reproducibility and transparency but also enable new scientific discoveries that extend beyond the scope of original studies. A previously published study on umbelliferone (UMB) demonstrated recovery of synaptic vesicle architecture under scopolamine (SCO)-induced pathological conditions, and the corresponding high-resolution electron microscopy dataset was deposited in the Korea BioData Station (K-BDS, https://kbds.re.kr), a national biological data platform.

In this study, we reanalyzed this open dataset to investigate whether UMB also affects the postsynaptic density (PSD), a previously unexplored structural determinant of synaptic efficacy and plasticity. Using the original high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images, we performed secondary quantitative analyses focusing on PSD length, width, and ultrastructural features across experimental groups. Our reanalysis revealed that UMB treatment significantly increased PSD length and width compared with the SCO-treated group, indicating a structural restoration of impaired postsynaptic architecture. Notably, these PSD-level alterations were not described in the original publication, demonstrating that novel biological insights can be derived from existing data through purposeful reuse.

Collectively, this study underscores the value of K-BDS as a national biological data platform that facilitates secondary discovery and advances data-driven neuroscience research without additional animal experimentation.