Fig. 5. Hippocampal Ska2 knockdown leads to cognitive impairment in mice.

In the Y-maze test, mice injected with Scr-shRNA spent significantly more time in the novel arm compared to both familiar arms (A, B). These effects were abolished following Ska2 knockdown (2-way ANOVA: condition × arm interaction, F_2,48 = 3.626, p = 0.0342, Tukey’s post hoc test: familiar arm A vs. novel arm, p = 0.0007, familiar arm B vs. novel arm, p < 0.002; n = 9 per group). B In contrast to control animals, Ska2-shRNA mice did not discriminate between a novel and familiar object during the novel object recognition test (unpaired t-test: t₁₅ = 2.840, p = 0.0124; n = 9 Scr-shRNA mice, n = 8 Ska2-shRNA mice). C, D Ska2 knockdown did not alter general locomotor activity in the open field test (unpaired t-test: p > 0.05, n = 9 per group) or anxiety-related behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM) (unpaired t-test: p > 0.05, n = 8 Scr-shRNA mice, n = 9 Ska2-shRNA mice). * = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01; *** = p < 0.001. Data are presented as mean + SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.