Fig. 6: Knocking-down Avp expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) impairs sociability and social aggression. | Nature Communications

Fig. 6: Knocking-down Avp expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) impairs sociability and social aggression.

From: Impaired vasopressin neuromodulation of the lateral septum leads to social behavior deficits in Shank3B+/- male mice

Fig. 6

a WT mice bilaterally injected in the BNST with AAV2/9 CMV.GFP.U6.anti-Avp-shRNA or AAV2/8 GFP.U6.scramble-shRNA (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/zzherf1). b Image of the BNST showing cells labeled with the virus (scale bar: 400 μm). Image of LS (lateral septum) with fibers anterogradely labeled with the virus (scale bar: 200 μm). c Experimental timeline. d Schematic of the sociability test (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://biorender.com/8v51vnv). e Interaction times with empty and social cups (10 mice/group. Paired t test, scramble: p = 0.001; Paired t test, anti-Avp: p = 0.06). f Discrimination indexes for social preference (10 mice/group. Unpaired t test: p = 0.0005). g Schematic of the resident-intruder test (Created in BioRender. Leroy, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/in0mntf). h Proportions of mice exhibiting only social exploration, social dominance without aggression, or aggression (at least one biting attack, 10 mice/group. Chi-squared test: χ²(2) = 5.33, p = 0.07). i Latencies to social explore during the resident-intruder test (10 mice/group. Unpaired t test: p = 0.005). j Social interaction duration (10 mice/group. Unpaired t test: p = 0.02). k Attack durations (10 mice/group. Unpaired t test: p = 0.03). l Number of tail rattles (10 mice/group. Unpaired t test: p = 0.07). For the entire figure, bar graphs represent mean ± s.e.m. Each point is one mouse. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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