Figure 1.

Loss of striatal MeCP2 impairs psychomotor behaviors. A, Schematic diagrams illustrate the selected brain regions for immunostaining and quantification of MeCP2-positive cells in B–D. The area of squares is 200 × 200 μm. B–D, Selective reduction of MeCP2-expressing cells in the striatum of cKO mice compared with Flox controls. Total cells are labeled by DAPI (pseudo-colored in red). cc, corpus callosum. Scale bar (in B′), 100 μm. E, Reduced locomotor activity of cKO mice in open-field test. The representative exploration trajectories are shown in the top panel. Total Dist., Total distance traveled; Resting T%, percentage of time at rest; V-avg, average velocity of locomotion; V-max, maximal velocity of locomotion; Center T%, percentage of time stayed in the central arena (yellow square). F, Impaired motor skill learning in cKO mice tested by accelerating rotarod. G, No spatial learning deficit in cKO mice tested by Barnes maze. T1, Trial 1. H, Unaltered anxiety state in cKO mice tested by elevated zero maze; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, compared with controls by Student's t test in D (n = 4) and H, one-way ANOVA in E, repeated-measures two-way ANOVA in F and G, followed by Bonferroni post hoc test (F).