Hyper-response to Novelty Increases c-Fos Expression in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex in a Rat Model of Schizophrenia.

Hyper-response to Novelty Increases c-Fos Expression in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex in a Rat Model of Schizophrenia. Neurochem Res. 2017 Dec 06;: Authors: Monfil T, Vázquez Roque RA, Camacho-Abrego I, Tendilla-Beltran H, Ianniti T, Meneses-Morales I, Aguilar-Alonso P, Flores G, Morales-Medina JC Abstract Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder that may have a neurodevelopmental origin. For this reason, animal models based on neonatal insults or manipulations have been extensively used to demonstrate schizophrenia-related behaviors. Among those, the neonatal ventral hippocampus lesion (nVHL) is largely used as a model of schizophrenia-related behavior as it mimics behavioral and neurochemical abnormalities often seen in schizophrenic patients including hyperlocomotion in a novel environment. To investigate the neuroanatomical basis of coding novelty in the nVHL rat, we assessed the behavioral locomotor activity paradigm in a novel environment and measured expression of c-Fos, a marker of neural activation, in brain regions involved in the process of coding novelty or locomotion. Upon reaching adulthood, nVHL rats showed hyperlocomotion in the novel environment paradigm. Moreover, in nVHL rats the expression of c-Fos was greater in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus compared to sham rats. Whereas similar expression of c-Fos was observed in the basolateral amygdala, nucleus accumbens and ...
Source: Neurochemical Research - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Neurochem Res Source Type: research