Fig. 4: Activation of PV neurons in sNAc is required for anxiety-like avoidance. | Molecular Psychiatry

Fig. 4: Activation of PV neurons in sNAc is required for anxiety-like avoidance.

From: A new GABAergic somatostatin projection from the BNST onto accumbal parvalbumin neurons controls anxiety

Fig. 4

a Left, Schematic showing optrode placement in the NAc shell; Top right, ChR2-mCherry neurons (red) in NAc co-expressed PV (green); scale bar, 100 μm; bottom right, higher magnification of the co-staining (merged, yellow; scale bar, 10 μm). b Top left, schematic showing patch-clamp technique; bottom left, sample of light-evoked PV neuronal action potentials; right, the action potential frequency of PV neurons following different light stimulation frequency from 5–80 Hz. Comparison of c open arm entries and d time spent in the open arm between PV-ChR2 and PV-mCherry groups (n = 7 per group, unpaired t test, for c, ChR2: OFF vs. ON, t = 4.950, P = 0.0003; ON: mCherry vs. ChR2, t = 4.338, P = 0.001; for d, ChR2: OFF vs. ON, t = 3.024, P = 0.0106; ON: mCherry vs. ChR2, t = 3.383, P = 0.0054). e Comparison of time spent in the central area during OFT between PV-ChR2 and PV-mCherry groups (n = 7 per group, unpaired t test, ChR2: OFF vs. ON, t = 2.661, P = 0.0207; ON: mCherry vs. ChR2, t = 4.447, P = 0.0008). f Mean velocity of PV-ChR2 and PV-mCherry groups during OFT (n = 7 per group, unpaired t test, ChR2: OFF vs. ON, t = 0.6542, P = 0.5253; ON: mCherry vs. ChR2, t = 0.6205, P = 0.5466). g Protocol schematic for selective chemogenetic inhibition of PV neurons in the sNAc. h Left, immunostaining showing targeted hM4Di expression (red) in PV neurons (green) of sNAc in PV-Cre mice; scale bar, 50 μm. Right, quantification of PV cells with hMeDi expression, n = 6 slices from 3 mice. i Representative mice thermal tracks for left PV-mCherry and right PV- hM4Di groups during OFT. j–k Mean number of entries to center (n = 8 mice per group, unpaired t test, t = 3.357, P = 0.0047) and mean time in the center (Unpaired t test, t = 2.805, P = 0.0140). l Representative mice thermal tracks for left PV-mCherry and right PV- hM4Di groups during EPM task. m, n Mean number of open arm entries (n = 10 mice per group, unpaired t test, t = 2.571, P = 0.0192) and mean time in open arms (Unpaired t test, t = 3.042, P = 0.0070).

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