Fig. 1: FKBP51 in glutamatergic forebrain neurons and early life stress exposure have an interactive effect on behaviour in female mice.
From: FKBP51 in glutamatergic forebrain neurons promotes early life stress inoculation in female mice
A Offspring of Fkbp5lox/lox WT mice and mice lacking FKBP51 in glutamatergic forebrain neurons (Fkbp5Nex) were exposed to limited bedding and nesting (LBN) early life stress (ELS) paradigm from postnatal day 2 (P2) to P9. At 6 months of age, mice were exposed to a behavioural protocol, including tests assessing anxiety-like behaviour and (spatial) memory performance in a neutral or stressful context. Panel (B–F) shows data of female mice only, data on male mice can be found in Supplementary Fig. 2. Genotype affected locomotor behaviour of female mice independent of ELS exposure (B). Data from the open field (OF) test (B) and elevated plus maze (EPM) test (C) revealed a strong beneficial effect of ELS exposure on anxiety-like behaviour. The fold change of the ELS effect (vs. the control condition) on EPM parameters was significantly larger in WT mice than in KO mice (D). Further, memory performance in a neutral context (E) revealed a deteriorating effect of ELS, in interaction with FKBP5 genotype. Interestingly, for assessing memory function in a stressful context (F) with the Morris water maze (MWM), ELS had a beneficial effect on spatial memory performance in Fkbp5lox/lox mice only. ELS: n = 10 Fkbp5Nex and n = 11 Fkbp5lox/lox; control: n = 10 Fkbp5Nex and n = 9 Fkbp5lox/lox. Error bars represent mean + S.E.M. Panels B,C,E,F: 2-way ANOVA. Panel (D): 2-sided t test. Panel (F): repeated measures ANOVA. *effect of ELS p < 0.05; **effect of ELS p < 0,01; *** effect of ELS p < 0.001; # effect of genotype p < 0.05; $ interaction effect ELS x genotype p < 0.05. Images of MWM, mouse brain and MRT scanner created in BioRender. Schmidt, M. (2025) https://BioRender.com/p00d573.
