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. 2013 May 24;6:13. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2013.00013

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2

Optogenetic activation of NAc D1-MSNs but not D2-MSNs alters Tiam1 levels. (A) D1-Cre or D2-Cre mice expressing AAV-DIO-ChR2-EYFP or AAV-DIO-EYFP in NAc received 5 days of blue light illumination to the NAc (n = 4 per group) and NAc tissue was used to perform gene expression analyzes with the Mouse Cytoskeleton Regulators PCR array (SA Biosciences). We find that three genes were significantly regulated in D1-ChR2 NAc compared to D1-EYFP NAc, four genes were significantly regulated in D2-ChR2 NAc compared to D2-EYFP, and three genes were significantly regulated in both D1-ChR2 and D2-ChR2 compared to EYFP controls. Tiam1 was a gene that was significantly down-regulated by repeated D1-ChR2 activation but not by D2-ChR2 activation. Heat maps are expressed in log scale. (B) D2-Cre mice expressing AAV-DIO-ChR2-EYFP or AAV-DIO-EYFP in NAc were injected (i.p.) with saline (day 0) followed by injections (i.p.) with either cocaine (10 mg/kg) or saline coupled with blue light illumination to the NAc and locomotor activity was monitored for 1 h (days 1–5, n = 5–6 per group). D2-MSN activation in the AAV-DIO-ChR2-EYFP cocaine group resulted in a significant attenuation in cocaine locomotor activity on days 4 and 5 compared to the AAV-DIO-EYFP cocaine group. [Repeated measure two-way ANOVA, F(10, 70) = 7.46, p < 0.001, post hoc test, **p < 0.01.] (C) No difference is observed in Tiam1 mRNA levels in AAV-DIO-EYFP and AAV-DIO-ChR2-EYFP cocaine groups (n = 5–6).