Journal: Nature medicine

Article Title: Decreased expression of synapse-related genes and loss of synapses in major depressive disorder.

doi: 10.1038/nm.2886

Figure Lengend Snippet: Figure 4 Viral expression of GATA1 in rat PFCs causes depressive behavior. (a) Schematic diagram of the experimental schedule. Control rAAV and rAAV-GATA1-eGFP vectors were surgically infused into the medial PFC (rAAV surgery) and rats were allowed to recover for 5 weeks (recovery/rAAV expression). LA, locomotor activity; FST, forced swim test; LH, learned helplessness; IHC, immunochemistry. (b) Representative low-power (left) image of GFP IHC showing the location of the viral infusion site in the medial PFC. On the right is an image of the labeled neurons at a higher magnification. (c,d) Influence of control virus (rAAV-control) and rAAV-GATA1 on the behavior in the forced swim test (c) and the learned helplessness (d) paradigm. Avoidance testing was separated into trials 1–5 and 6–10. Data are the mean ± s.e.m. (n = 9 for rAAV-control and n = 10 for rAAV-GATA1). * P < 0.05 compared to rAAV-control (t test). (e) Schematic diagram of Gata1 shRNA knockdown in the CUS paradigm. SPT, sucrose preference test. (f) Representative image of GFP IHC showing the location of viral infusion in the same region of the PFC as is shown in b. (g) Influence of rAAV-ScrshRNA and rAAV-GATA1shRNA on sucrose preference in control nonstressed and CUS-exposed rats. Data are the mean ± s.e.m. (controls: n = 6 for rAAV-ScrshRNA and n = 8 for rAAV-GATA1shRNA; CUS: n = 7 for rAAV-ScrshRNA and n = 8 for rAAV-GATA1shRNA). *P < 0.05 compared to the respective control group (analysis of variance and Fisher’s protected least significant difference post-hoc analysis).

Article Snippet: The learned helplessness procedure was performed in custom-built, two-chambered shuttle boxes (Med Associates, Vermont), as previously described45,46.

Techniques: Expressing, Control, Activity Assay, Labeling, Virus, shRNA, Knockdown