Fig. 2: MiR-186-5p overexpression in the mPFC induced anxious- and depressive-like behaviours.
a Left – schematic illustration and right – representative image of the injection site in the mPFC with lentivirus encoding a scramble or the pre-miR-186 sequence, together with EGFP. b The infected cells were laser micro-dissected and the subsequent real-time PCR detected that lentiviral-mediated pre-miR-186 expression increased miR-186-5p levels in the PFC of injected animals (n = 3–7 animals per condition; Unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction: ##p ≤ 0.05). c, h Cumulative occupancy heatmaps in the c EPM and h OFT of scramble- or pre-miR-186-expressing mice. Warmer colours represent areas where longer time was spent. d–f Animals expressing pre-miR-186 for 4 weeks d showed reduced total travelled distance with no differences in e the open arms travelled distance, and f spent less time in the open arms (n = 14–19 animals per condition; Unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction: ns p > 0.05; #p ≤ 0.05). g The time that the animals spent immobile during the TST was not significantly different between experimental groups at four weeks after lentiviral injection (n = 14–19 animals per condition; Unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction: ns p > 0.05). i The total distance travelled and j the time spent in the centre of the OFT were not different between scramble- and pre-miR-186-injected mice after 6 weeks of lentiviral expression (n = 13–19 animals per condition; Mann–Whitney test: ns p > 0.05). k Six weeks of miR-186-5p overexpression increased the immobility time in the TST (n = 14–18 animals per condition; Mann–Whitney test: #p ≤ 0.05). b Results are presented as mean ± SEM. d–k Boxes show 25th and 75th percentiles, whiskers show the range (minimum to maximum values) and the horizontal line shows the median value.
