RESUMEN
In experimental settings, antidepressant treatment as well as a stimulating environment has a positive influence on cognition and hippocampal plasticity. One putative mediator of this process is Neuronal Pentraxin 2 (NP2, Narp), known to mediate clustering of glutamatergic AMPA receptors at synapses, and demonstrated to play a role in activity-dependent synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity. This study demonstrates that NP2 mRNA is robustly expressed in all hippocampal subregions and the medial habenula (MHb), both regions implicated in cognitive functions. Furthermore, NP2 mRNA expression is upregulated in the hippocampal subregions as well as in the MHb after long-term treatment with different antidepressant drugs regardless of monoaminergic profile, suggesting NP2 as a common mode of action of different antidepressant drugs. This effect occurs at the time frame where clinical response is normally achieved. In contrast, neither environmental enrichment nor deprivation has any influence on long-term NP2 mRNA expression. These findings support an involvement of NP2 in the pathway of antidepressant-induced plasticity, but not EE-induced plasticity; that NP2 might constitute a common link for the action of different types of antidepressant drugs and that the MHb could be a putative region for further studies of NP2.
Asunto(s)
Proteína C-Reactiva/genética , Habénula/efectos de los fármacos , Hipocampo/efectos de los fármacos , Proteínas del Tejido Nervioso/genética , Plasticidad Neuronal/efectos de los fármacos , Neuronas/efectos de los fármacos , ARN Mensajero/efectos de los fármacos , Animales , Esquema de Medicación , Ambiente Controlado , Regulación de la Expresión Génica/efectos de los fármacos , Regulación de la Expresión Génica/fisiología , Habénula/citología , Habénula/metabolismo , Hipocampo/citología , Hipocampo/metabolismo , Masculino , Plasticidad Neuronal/fisiología , Neuronas/metabolismo , ARN Mensajero/metabolismo , Ratas , Ratas Sprague-Dawley , Privación Sensorial/fisiología , Sinapsis/efectos de los fármacos , Sinapsis/metabolismo , Transmisión Sináptica/efectos de los fármacos , Transmisión Sináptica/fisiología , TiempoRESUMEN
Neuronal pentraxins (NPs) define a family of proteins that are homologous to C-reactive and acute-phase proteins in the immune system and have been hypothesized to be involved in activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. To investigate the role of NPs in vivo, we generated mice that lack one, two, or all three NPs. NP1/2 knock-out mice exhibited defects in the segregation of eye-specific retinal ganglion cell (RGC) projections to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, a process that involves activity-dependent synapse formation and elimination. Retinas from mice lacking NP1 and NP2 had cholinergically driven waves of activity that occurred at a frequency similar to that of wild-type mice, but several other parameters of retinal activity were altered. RGCs cultured from these mice exhibited a significant delay in functional maturation of glutamatergic synapses. Other developmental processes, such as pathfinding of RGCs at the optic chiasm and hippocampal long-term potentiation and long-term depression, appeared normal in NP-deficient mice. These data indicate that NPs are necessary for early synaptic refinements in the mammalian retina and dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus. We speculate that NPs exert their effects through mechanisms that parallel the known role of short pentraxins outside the CNS.