- Title
- An altered glial phenotype in the NL3R451C mouse model of autism
- Creator
- Matta, Samantha M.; Moore, Zachery; Walker, Frederick Rohan; Hill-Yardin, Elisa L.; Crack, Peter J.
- Relation
- Scientific Reports Vol. 10, Issue 1, no. 14492
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71171-y
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; autism) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by deficits in social communication, and restricted and/or repetitive behaviours. While the precise pathophysiologies are unclear, increasing evidence supports a role for dysregulated neuroinflammation in the brain with potential effects on synapse function. Here, we studied characteristics of microglia and astrocytes in the Neuroligin-3 (NL3R451C) mouse model of autism since these cell types are involved in regulating both immune and synapse function. We observed increased microglial density in the dentate gyrus (DG) of NL3R451C mice without morphological differences. In contrast, WT and NL3R451C mice had similar astrocyte density but astrocyte branch length, the number of branch points, as well as cell radius and area were reduced in the DG of NL3R451C mice. Because retraction of astrocytic processes has been linked to altered synaptic transmission and dendrite formation, we assessed for regional changes in pre- and postsynaptic protein expression in the cortex, striatum and cerebellum in NL3R451C mice. NL3R451C mice showed increased striatal postsynaptic density 95 (PSD-95) protein levels and decreased cortical expression of synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP-25). These changes could contribute to dysregulated neurotransmission and cognition deficits previously reported in these mice.
- Subject
- autism spectrum disorder (ASD); behaviour; genetic; environmental factors
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1475620
- Identifier
- uon:49605
- Identifier
- ISSN:2045-2322
- Rights
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Language
- eng
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