Journal: The Journal of Physiology

Article Title: Short‐chain fatty acids: microbial metabolites that alleviate stress‐induced brain–gut axis alterations

doi: 10.1113/JP276431

Figure Lengend Snippet: Social interaction with a CD1 mouse used in the social defeat procedure was assessed in the social interaction test 1 day after the last stressor (A). Mice were additionally assessed for social preference (B) and recognition (C) with a conspecific mouse in the three‐chamber sociability test 1 week post stress. The social interaction test was non‐parametrically distributed and analysed using the Kruskal‐Wallis test. Significant differences are depicted as: * P < 0.05; Control compared to Stress. In the three‐chamber sociability test, differences between ‘object’ versus ‘mouse’ and ‘familiar mouse’ versus ‘novel mouse’ were assessed using a Student's unpaired t test. Significant differences are depicted as: * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 and *** P < 0.001. All data are expressed as means ± SEM (n = 9–10). [Color figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Article Snippet: For the social defeat procedure, age‐matched male CD1 mice ( n = 30; Harlan, UK) were tested for aggression on three individual days.

Techniques:

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the dorsal periaqueductal gray encode decisions to assess and escape natural threats

doi: 10.64898/2026.02.16.706076

Figure Lengend Snippet: ( A ) Sketch representing the behavioral task design, where mice were exposed sequentially to an aggressive conspecific (CD1 mouse), a prey (cockroach) and a predator (rat). At least 5 minutes separated tests to allow GCaMP photobleaching to recover. Mice remained attached to the miniscope to facilitate accurate tracking of neurons across tests. ( B ) Sketches representing the behavioral arenas in the social test (top) and prey test (bottom). ( C ) Velocity of the mouse centered around escape onset for the three behavioral tests. ( D ) Distance to the CD1 (left) or cockroach (right) over time for a representative mouse; color code indicates velocity. Slow-velocity assessment followed by high-velocity escape was shown repeatedly. ( E ) Top: heatmaps showing normalized glutamatergic activity recorded in 111 neurons across 6 mice locked to risk escape onset for the social test. Neurons are sorted according to responsiveness to escape onset in the rat test (see ) to allow for visual comparisons of activity across tests. Bottom: as top, for GABAergic neurons (166 neurons). ( F ) as E, for the prey test. ( G ) Top: average activity of glutamagergic neurons categorized as Assessment + (orange) and Escape + (blue) in the social test. Bottom: as top, for GABAergic neurons. Data are presented as mean +/- SEM. ( H ) as G, for the prey test. ( I ) Venn diagrams representing activity overlap across tests (social: red; prey: yellow; predator: green) for glutamatergic neurons (top) and GABAergic neurons (bottom). ( J ) Pie charts representing the summary of responsiveness and activity overlaps for excitatory (top) and inhibitory neurons (bottom). ( K ) From left to right: Embedding obtained by training multi-session CEBRA Behavior on 70% of each mouse’s neural activity and behavioral labels acquired during the social test; embedding obtained by testing the previous model on unseen data acquired from Vgat + mice during the same experimental test; embedding similarly obtained by testing the previous model on Vglut2 + data from the same experimental test; multi-session CEBRA Behavior embedding obtained by training the model on 70% of each mouse’s neural activity and behavioral labels acquired during the social test after randomly shuffling the behavioral labels. ( L ) Comparison between prediction accuracy of behavioral labels using KNN of 1) 10 different multi-session CEBRA Behavior models trained and tested on 10 separate random train-test splits (all mice, for social test and 2) 10 different multi-session CEBRA Behavior models trained and tested with shuffled behavioral labels (same mice and experimental tests, new random train-test splits). ( M,N ) as K,L for prey test. Statistical significance was tested with Wilcoxon rank-sum (*p < 0.001, p < 0.01, *p < 0.05).

Article Snippet: Aggressive mice used in the modified resident intruder test were male, ex-breeder adult CD1 mice obtained from local EMBL colonies or purchased from Charles Rivers Laboratories.

Techniques: Activity Assay, Comparison

Journal: Psychosomatic medicine

Article Title: Chronic social and psychological stress impact select neuropathologies in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy

doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001256

Figure Lengend Snippet: A) Relative abundance mRNA expression of human MAPT gene with the P301S mutation. Wildtype (WT) mice express negligible levels of the gene, while all PS19 mice transcriptionally express the gene. Unpaired t-test, p=0.0001 B) PS19 mice manifest significantly greater GFAP (Unpaired t-test, p=0.0065) and Iba1 (Unpaired t-test. p=0.0297) immunoreactivity than siblings negative for the P301S mutation. Representative images (top) and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) quantification (bottom) of immunofluorescence for astrocytes (GFAP, green) and microglia (Iba1, magenta) in the dentate gyrus of 5–8-month-old male WT and PS19 mice. C) PS19 mice have significantly more pTau immunoreactivity and significantly thinner dentate gyrus granular cell layers than WT siblings. Unpaired t-test: pTau, p=0.0446; granular cell layer width, p=0.0392. Representative images (top) and MFI quantification (bottom, left) of immunofluorescence for phosphorylated tau (AT8, white) in the dentate gyrus of 5–8-month-old male WT and PS19 mice. Average width of the dentate gyrus granular cell layer (bottom, right) measured from the nuclear stain (dapi, blue) in WT and PS19 mice. Scale bar in B,C, 50 μm. Data are mean + s.e.m. *P<0.05;**P<0.01 determined by unpaired two-sided t-tests with Welch’s correction. D) Elevated Plus Maze. There are no significant differences in total distance moved between WT and PS19 mice (Unpaired t-test, p=0.231). PS19 mice spent significantly more time in the open arms than wildtype mice (Unpaired t-test. p=0.010). PS19 mice spent significantly less time in the closed arms than wildtype mice (Unpaired t test, p=0.0001). E) Barnes Maze. No significant differences between wildtype and PS19 mice in average daily latency to enter escape hole zone during Barnes Maze training (2-way repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test, significant main group effect of training day, p=0.0001, no significant effect of group, no significant interaction). PS19 did not show as steep and learning curve in Barnes Maze training in terms of average time to enter escape hole on each day of training (2-way repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test, significant main group effect of training day (p=0.0001), significant main group effect of genotype (p=0.020), no significant interaction of day x genotype). Lastly, PS19 mice exhibited significantly less preference than wildtype mice for the goal quadrant compared with other quadrants during the Barnes Maze probe trial. Unpaired t-test. p=0.031. * indicates p<0.05, ** indicates p<0.01 *** indicates p<0.001, **** indicates p<0.0001. Unless otherwise specified histogram bars represent group mean, and error bars represent standard error. The drawings were created with BioRender.com .

Article Snippet: Chronic subordination stress (CSS) was conducted according to a previously established protocol ( 42 , 44 ): Male PS19 mice (n=7) were paired with mice from the aggressive CD1 strain (Charles River Labs).

Techniques: Biomarker Discovery, Expressing, Mutagenesis, Fluorescence, Immunofluorescence, Staining

Journal: Psychosomatic medicine

Article Title: Chronic social and psychological stress impact select neuropathologies in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy

doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001256

Figure Lengend Snippet: A) Experimental overview. B) Elevated Plus Maze. No significant differences between groups in total distance traveled. CRS-exposed mice spent significantly less time in the open arms (1-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test, ctrl vs CRS p=0.046) and trended towards more time in the closed arms of the EPM (1-way ANOVA with Dunnet’s multiple comparisons test p=0.094) than controls. C) Barnes Maze. Control and CRS-exposed mice displayed improvement in time to first enter escape hole zone with each day of training but CSS-exposed mice showed little change over the course of training. No significant differences between groups in time spent in goal quadrant during Barnes Maze probe trial though CSS-exposed mice trended towards less time in goal quadrant. * indicates p<0.05, ** indicates p<0.01 *** indicates p<0.001, **** indicates p<0.0001. Unless otherwise specified histogram bars represent group mean, and error bars represent standard error. The drawings were created with BioRender.com .

Article Snippet: Chronic subordination stress (CSS) was conducted according to a previously established protocol ( 42 , 44 ): Male PS19 mice (n=7) were paired with mice from the aggressive CD1 strain (Charles River Labs).

Techniques: Control

Journal: Psychosomatic medicine

Article Title: Chronic social and psychological stress impact select neuropathologies in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy

doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001256

Figure Lengend Snippet: Representative images of immunofluorescence for astrocytes (GFAP, green), microglia (Iba1, magenta), and nuclei (dapi, blue) in the dentate gyrus of 5–8-month-old male PS19 mice exposed to control (ctrl) conditions or A) chronic subordination stress (CSS) or B) chronic restraint stress (CRS). Number of GFAP(+) cells (left) and Iba1(+) cells (right) in the dentate gyrus of PS19 mice exposed to ctrl conditions or C) CSS or D) CRS. Ponceau S and western blots images (left) and quantification (right) for cortical GFAP and Iba1 in PS19 mice exposed to ctrl conditions versus E) CSS, p=0.0194 (GFAP) or F) CRS, p=0.0003 (Iba1). G) Higher magnification images of immunofluorescence for astrocytes (GFAP, green) and nuclei (Dapi, blue) in three PS19 mice exposed to ctrl or CRS conditions. H) Sholl analysis of microglial ramification and I) average soma size of Iba1(+) cells in the dentate gyrus of WT or PS19 mice exposed to ctrl conditions or CRS (WT ctrl versus PS19 ctrl, p=0.0176). Scale bar, 50 μm (A, B, G). Data are mean + s.e.m. *P<0.05;**P<0.01;***P<0.001 determined by unpaired two-sided t-tests (C-F) or Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn’s multiple comparisons (I). Error bars represent standard error.

Article Snippet: Chronic subordination stress (CSS) was conducted according to a previously established protocol ( 42 , 44 ): Male PS19 mice (n=7) were paired with mice from the aggressive CD1 strain (Charles River Labs).

Techniques: Immunofluorescence, Control, Western Blot

Journal: Psychosomatic medicine

Article Title: Chronic social and psychological stress impact select neuropathologies in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy

doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001256

Figure Lengend Snippet: Representative images of immunofluorescence for nuclei (dapi, blue) and A) phosphorylated tau (pS404, white), B) phosphorylated tau (pS202/pT205, white), and C) total tau (white) in 8-month-old male PS19 mice exposed to control (ctrl) conditions or chronic subordination stress (CSS). D) Western blot images for cortical tau and corresponding quantification of E) phosphorylated tau (pS404) and F) phosphorylated tau (pS202/pT205), in PS19 mice exposed to ctrl conditions or CSS. Representative images of immunofluorescence for nuclei (dapi, blue) and G) phosphorylated tau (pS404, white), H) phosphorylated tau (pS202/pT205, white), and I) total tau (white) in 5–8-month-old male PS19 mice exposed to ctrl conditions or chronic restraint stress (CRS). J) Western blot images for cortical tau and corresponding quantification of K) phosphorylated tau (p=0.0116, pS404) and L) phosphorylated tau (pS202/pT205) in PS19 mice exposed to ctrl conditions or CRS. Representative images (left) and cell density quantification (right) of Nissl staining in the dentate gyrus of mice exposed to ctrl conditions or M) CSS or N) CRS (p=0.0157, WT ctrl versus PS19 ctrl; p=0.0153, PS19 ctrl versus PS19 CRS). Scale bar, 50 μm (A-C, G-I, M-N). Data are mean + s.e.m. *P<0.05 determined by unpaired two-sided t-tests (E, F, K, L, M) or one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons (N). Error bars represent standard error.

Article Snippet: Chronic subordination stress (CSS) was conducted according to a previously established protocol ( 42 , 44 ): Male PS19 mice (n=7) were paired with mice from the aggressive CD1 strain (Charles River Labs).

Techniques: Immunofluorescence, Control, Western Blot, Staining