Fig. 3: Activation of VTA glutamatergic neurons promotes STA resilience.
a Experimental timeline. b, c Representative immunofluorescent images and quantitative data of c-Fos protein expression in mCherry-positive VTA glutamatergic neurons after saline or CNO treatment in Vglut2-IRES-Cre mice (adapted from The Mouse Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates by Paxinos and Franklin). Scale bar: 600 and 150 µm; n = 6, 4 slices from 3 and 2 mice, P = 1.6 × 10−7. The staining was repeated twice with similar results. d PWTs for different subgroups of BY mice across three repeats of social transfer of allodynia paradigm with or without chemogenetic activation of VTA glutamatergic neurons, subgroups of BY mice were identified according to the behavioral outcome after their first exposure to social contact with CFA partners (n = 13, 17 and 7 mice). Control versus BY-S, PBL = 0.8890, PT1 = 1.4 × 10−5, PT2 = 0.9706, PT3 = 2.9 × 10−5; Control versus BY-R, PBL = 0.9152, PT1 = 0.7226, PT2 = 0.5950, PT3 = 0.5041. e Percentages of BY-S and BY-R mice across the three repeats of paradigm. Test 1 versus Test 2, P = 0.0004; Test 1 versus Test 3, P > 0.9999; Test 2 versus Test 3, P = 0.0010. f Experimental timeline. g PWTs over different time points before and after CNO injection in BY-S mice (n = 10 mice per group). BY-S + saline versus BY-S + CNO, PBL > 0.9999, P30min = 0.0034, P2h = 0.1688 and P6h = 0.9816. h Individual and summary data showing the PWTs for CFA mice at baseline, before, and after CNO injection (n = 12 mice). BL versus Pre, P = 0.0005; Pre versus CNO, P > 0.9999; BL versus CNO, P = 0.0033. The data are expressed as the mean ± s.e.m. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, ns no significance. Data analyzed by (c) unpaired two-sided t-test; (d, g) two-way RM ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test; (e) two-sided Fisher’s exact test and (h) two-sided Friedman test with Dunn’s multiple comparisons test. Statistical details are presented in Supplementary Table 5. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
