Fig. 6: Knockout of astrocytic ALKBH5 prevents the disruption of glutamatergic synaptic transmission from social stress.

a Representative traces of action potentials measured by whole-cell current-clamp recordings from mPFC layer IV-V pyramidal neurons of Ctrl and Astrocyte cKO mice with or without the CSDS experiments. Representative voltage traces in neurons showing the effects of a series of 500 ms current pulses ranging from 0 to 120 pA in 20 pA steps. b, c Quantification of the amplitude of action potentials currents (b Ctrl, n = 12; Astrocyte cKO, n = 20 cells from four individual mice) and Summarized results of firing rate under increasing step currents (c Ctrl, n = 12; Astrocyte cKO, n = 21 cells from four individual mice) of pyramidal neurons from Ctrl and Astrocyte cKO mice with or without the CSDS paradigm. d Representative traces of sEPSCs recorded from mPFC neurons from Ctrl and Astrocyte cKO mice with or without the CSDS. e, f Quantification of sEPSCs frequency (e) and amplitude (f). (Ctrl Non-defeat, n = 17; cKO Non-defeat, n = 16; Ctrl Defeat, n = 12; cKO Defeat, n = 11 cells from four individual mice). g Representative traces of mEPSCs recorded from mPFC neurons from Ctrl and Astrocyte cKO mice with or without the CSDS. h, i Quantification of mEPSC frequency (h) and amplitudes (i). (Ctrl Non-defeat, n = 13 in (h), n = 12 in (j); cKO Non-defeat, n = 21; Ctrl Defeat, n = 13; cKO Defeat, n = 18 cells from four individual mice). j Representative traces of mean individual mEPSCs from Ctrl and Astrocyte cKO mice with or without the CSDS. k Quantification mean value of mEPSC decay time. (Ctrl Non-defeat, n = 18; cKO Non-defeat, n = 15; Ctrl Defeat, n = 17; cKO Defeat, n = 18 cells from four individual mice). All data were presented as the mean ± SEM. Two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test (b, c, e, f, h, i, k). *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001; n.s. no significance. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. See Supplementary Data 4 for statistical details.