Figure 6. Overexpression of NDIME in the hippocampus rescues autism‐like social deficits in mice.

• A
  qRT–PCR analysis of NDIME (P = 0.0051) and MEF2C (P = 0.0062) in VPA‐treated mice and saline‐treated mice; n = 9 per group.
• B
  Enrichment of EZH2 at the Mef2c promoter in VPA‐treated mice and saline‐treated mice (compared with saline‐treated mice); n = 9 per group.
• C
  Western blot analysis of the protein levels of MEF2C and GAPDH in the hippocampus of VPA‐treated mice (n = 9) and saline‐treated mice (n = 10).
• D
  Immunofluorescence images for MEF2C in the hippocampus of VPA‐treated mice and saline‐treated mice. Nuclei were stained with Hoechst 33342 (blue); n = 9 per group. Scale bars, 50 μm.
• E
  Statistical analysis of the grayscale levels of MEF2C in (C) by ImageJ (P = 0.0074); saline‐treated mice (n = 10), VPA‐treated mice (n = 9).
• F
  Statistical analysis of the Mean MEF2C staining intensity/unit area in (D) by ImageJ (P = 0.0096); n = 9 per group.
• G
  Immunofluorescence images for GFP in the hippocampus of saline‐treated mice, VPA‐treated mice, and VPA‐treated mice with viral‐mediated expression of NDIME; n = 9 per group. Scale bars, 100 μm.
• H
  Immunofluorescence images for MEF2C of mice in (G); n = 9 per group. Scale bars, 50 μm.
• I–K
  Adeno‐associated virus overexpression of NDIME in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the dorsal hippocampus of VPA‐treated mice rescued autism‐like social deficits. Open field test (I), three‐chamber test (J), and elevated‐plus maze (EPM) test (K).

Data information: Data in (A, B, E, and F) are represented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (unpaired two‐tailed Student's t‐test). Data in (I‐K) are represented as mean ± SEM; n = 9 per group. Asterisks indicate a difference between VPA + AAV‐GFP and Saline + AAV‐GFP, whereas hash tags indicate a difference between VPA + AAV‐NDIME‐GFP and VPA + AAV‐GFP. ^# P < 0.05, **^/## P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 (one‐way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test). NS—non‐significant.