Maternal Separation Early in Life Alters the Expression of Genes Npas4 and Nr1d1 in Adult Female Mice: Correlation with Social Behavior.

Maternal Separation Early in Life Alters the Expression of Genes Npas4 and Nr1d1 in Adult Female Mice: Correlation with Social Behavior.
Behav Neurol. 2020;2020:7830469
Authors: Ryabushkina YA, Reshetnikov VV, Bondar NP
Abstract
Early-life stress affects neuronal plasticity of the brain regions participating in the implementation of social behavior. Our previous studies have shown that brief and prolonged separation of pups from their mothers leads to enhanced social behavior in adult female mice. The goal of the present study was to characterize the expression of genes (which are engaged in synaptic plasticity) Egr1, Npas4, Arc, and Homer1 in the prefrontal cortex and dorsal hippocampus of adult female mice with a history of early-life stress. In addition, we evaluated the expression of stress-related genes: glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors (Nr3c1 and Nr3c2) and Nr1d1, which encodes a transcription factor (also known as REVERBα) modulating sociability and anxiety-related behavior. C57Bl/6 mice were exposed to either maternal separation (MS, 3 h once a day) or handling (HD, 15 min once a day) on postnatal days 2 through 14. In adulthood, the behavior of female mice was analyzed by some behavioral tests, and on the day after the testing of social behavior, we measured the gene expression. We found increased Npas4 expression only in the prefrontal cortex and higher Nr1d1 expression in both the prefrontal cortex and d...

Source: Behavioural Neurology - March 21, 2020 Category: Neurology Authors: Ryabushkina YA, Reshetnikov VV, Bondar NP Tags: Behav Neurol Source Type: research