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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 26.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Psychiatry. 2017 Apr 25;23(5):1328–1335. doi: 10.1038/mp.2017.80

Figure 5. Impulsivity and heroin abuse share a common ventral striatal gene expression network that relates to CREM and neuroplasticity.

Figure 5

(a,b) To focus on networks related to both impulsivity and heroin abuse, we compared differentially expressed genes derived from two datasets. While there was only a modest overlap between heroin and SHR altered genes (a), the shared genes are disproportionately regulators of neuroplasticity (b, upper panel) and targets of Crem (b, lower panel). (c) Of these common genes, Adgrl3—a gene previously associated with ADHD—is differentially regulated in the AcbC of SHRs at baseline and after acute heroin exposure (n = 10 per group for baseline study, n = 6 SHR and 5–6 WKY for acute heroin study). (d) Primary striatal neurons (co-cultured with cortical neurons) over-expressing Crem for two days in vitro exhibited significantly less dendritic spines at DIV14 (St = Stubby, Th = Thin, Mu = Mushroom) (n = 11 cells per group from 2–3 independent experiments). All data are expressed as mean ± s.e.m. unless otherwise indicated on x axis. ***P < 0.001 relative WKY or Gfp alone; †P < 0.05 relative vehicle; independent t-tests with Holm-Šidák correction, see results text for ANOVA statistics.