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. 2017 Apr 5;42(8):1715–1728. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.56

Figure 2.

Figure 2

hM3D-mediated activation of LS-projecting vHPC cells decreases anxiety. (a) LS-projecting vHPC cells were targeted by injecting the retrogradely propagating CAV2-Cre virus into the LS and injecting AAV8FLEXhM3DmCherry into the vHPC. (b) Representative images from AAV8FLEXhM3DmCherry mice showed hM3D-mCherry expression in LS-projecting vHPC cells along the anterior-posterior axis. (c) hM3D mice displayed an increased % open arm time in the EPM test after CNO injection (*p=0.0001). (d) hM3D mice displayed increased open arm entries in the EPM test (*p=0.01). (e) CTRL and hM3D mice showed similar levels of locomotor activity measured as a total distance traveled in the EPM. (f) Heat-map plots show the averaged cumulative time spent in different parts of the EPM. red=more time, blue=less time. (g–i) CTRL and hM3D mice showed similar levels of % center time (g), center entries (h) and locomotor activity (i) in the OF test. (j) Examination of locomotor activity in 5 min intervals revealed no significant differences between hM3D and CTRL mice. (k) Heat-map plots show the averaged cumulative time spent in different parts of the OF. red=more time, blue=less time. (l) CNO decreased the latency to feed in hM3D mice but not in CTRL mice in the NSF test (RM two-way ANOVA shows a significant effect of the treatment F(1, 18)=5.483 *p=0.03, followed by Bonferroni post-test p=0.03). (m) No alteration in the food consumption was observed among the groups after the NSF test. n=9 for CTRL and 11 for hM3D mice.