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. 2023 Nov 17;9(46):eadi5326. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi5326

Fig. 1. Selective ablation of ZI DA neurons impaired motivational vigor in fasting-triggered food seeking.

Fig. 1.

(A) AAV was injected into bilateral ZI of TH-Cre mice to induce mCherry (n = 8 mice) or mCherry plus caspase expression (n = 8 mice) in ZI DA neurons. (B) TH-immunoreactive ZI neurons (green) were ablated by virus-induced caspase/mCherry (magenta) expression. (C to F) Meal pattern analysis using FED free feeding shows total number of pellet retrieval, meal numbers, and averaged meal size of 24 hours. (G) Daily food intake for both control and caspase mice for 11 weeks following virus injection. (H) Body weight gain for both control and caspase mice. (I) Breakpoint reached by fed mice during operant PR sessions of 45 min. (J) Breakpoints reached by 24-hour fasted mice. (K) Active lever presses during PR extinction and reinstatement sessions. (L) Real-time activity of mice in open-field chambers with food pellets placed in the center. (M) The latency to the first entry of the center area, the total entries to center area, the total time in the center area, and the number of food pellets consumed by mice in open-field chambers with food pellets placed in the center. Unaired t test for (B), (D), (E), (F), and (M), two-way ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni test for (G) to (K).*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, and ####P < 0.0001; ns, no significance.