Overexpression of astroglial major histocompatibility complex class I in the medial prefrontal cortex impairs visual dis
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RESEARCH
Overexpression of astroglial major histocompatibility complex class I in the medial prefrontal cortex impairs visual discrimination learning in mice Bolati Wulaer1,2†, Kazuhiro Hada1†, Akira Sobue1, Norimichi Itoh1, Toshitaka Nabeshima2, Taku Nagai1 and Kiyofumi Yamada1*
Abstract Background: Immune molecules, such as cytokines, complement, and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins, in the central nervous system are often associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Neuronal MHC class I (MHCI), such as H-2D, regulate neurite outgrowth, the establishment and function of cortical connections, and activity-dependent refinement in mice. We previously established mice expressing MHCI specifically in astrocytes of the media prefrontal cortex (mPFC) using the adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector under the control of the GfaABC1D promoter. Mice expressing the soluble form of H-2D (sH-2D) in the mPFC (sH-2D-expressing mice) showed abnormal behaviors, including social interaction deficits and cognitive dysfunctions. However, the pathophysiological significance of astroglial MHCI on higher brain functions, such as learning, memory, and behavioral flexibility, remains unclear. Therefore, cognitive function in mice expressing sH-2D in astrocytes of the mPFC was tested using the visual discrimination (VD) task. Methods: sH-2D-expressing mice were subjected to the VD and reversal learning tasks, and morphological analysis. Results: In the pretraining, sH-2D-expressing mice required significantly more trials to reach the learning criterion than control mice. The total number of sessions, trials, normal trials, and correction trials to reach the VD criterion were also significantly higher in sH-2D-expressing mice than in control mice. A morphological study showed that dendritic complexity and spine density were significantly reduced in the dorsal striatum of sH-2D-expressing mice. Conclusion: Collectively, the present results suggest that the overexpression of astroglial MHCI in the mPFC results in impaired VD learning, which may be accompanied by decreased dendritic complexity in the dorsal striatum and mPFC. Keywords: MHCI, Astrocyte, Touchscreen, Visual discrimination, Reversal learning, Learning and memory, Cognition, Recognition memory
*Correspondence: [email protected]‑u.ac.jp † Bolati Wulaer and Kazuhiro Hada are co-first authors 1 Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Hospital Pharmacy, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai‑cho, Showa‑ku, Nagoya 466‑8560, Japan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Introduction The brain is considered to be ‘immuno-privileged’ because of the lack of classical immune molecules in the central nervous system (CNS) [1, 2]. However, current research suggests the presence of communication between the immune and nervous system for brain functions after the discovery of immune molecules,
© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Lic
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