FIG. 6.

DCS administration after extinction training increases the number of pERK-positive neurons, and extinction training modulates iGluR protein expression in the mPFC. (A) Extinction training significantly increased the number of pERK-stained neurons in both the PL and IL compared to context, unpaired, cond-sal, and cond-DCS. Ext-DCS further increased the number of pERK-stained neurons in both the PL and IL compared to ext-sal (one-way ANOVA). Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n=6). (B) DAB staining of coronal sections of context, unpaired, condition-saline (cond-sal), condition-DCS (cond-DCS), extinction-saline (ext-sal), and extinction-DCS (ext-DCS) shows an increase in pERK staining in the PL and IL in the ext-DCS group compared to the ext-sal and other groups. (C) Normalized expression level of iGluR proteins shows that extinction training increases GluA1, GluN1, and GluN2A expression in mPFC compared to context, unpaired, cond-sal, and cond-DCS (one-way ANOVA). Administration of DCS after extinction training (ext-DCS) versus ext-sal showed similar protein expression levels (n=6). (D) Representative protein expression from synaptoneurosome preparation collected from all groups. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. * (# or $), ** (## or $$), and *** (### or $$$) represent P<0.05, P<0.01, and P<0.001 versus context and unpaired groups, conditioned control, or extinction-saline control, respectively.