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. 2022 Feb 14;9(1):ENEURO.0381-21.2021. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0381-21.2021

Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Chronic chemogenetic inhibition of CaMKIIα-positive forebrain excitatory neurons during the early postnatal window does not influence despair-like behavior or sensorimotor gating responses in adult mice. A, Shown is a schematic for the experimental paradigm for vehicle (5% sucrose) or CNO (5 mg/kg) administration in the early postnatal window (P2 to P14) to CaMKIIα-tTA::TRE-hM4Di bigenic pups, which were then assessed for despair-like behavior in adulthood using the FST and sensorimotor gating responses (PPI). B, Shown is a schematic for the FST tank. C, D, We observed no significant PNCNO × sex interactions for either the percentage of immobility time (C) or the total number of immobility events [D; n = 14 (males), n = 10 (females) for vehicle-treated CaMKIIα-tTA::TRE-hM4Di bigenic mice; n = 12 (males), n = 10 (females) for PNCNO-treated CaMKIIα-tTA::TRE-hM4Di bigenic mice]. D, We did note a significant main effect of sex for the number of immobility events. E, Shown is a schematic for the protocol used for PPI to assess sensorimotor gating responses in adult male mice. PPI testing was conducted as described in Materials and Methods with basal startle determined following habituation, and PPI determined for +4 dB (69 dB), +8 dB (73 dB), and +16 dB (81 dB) above background noise (65 dB), followed by exposure to 120 dB for final startle. F, PNCNO-treated adult CaMKIIα-tTA::TRE-hM4Di bigenic male mice show a significant increase in basal startle response compared with vehicle-treated controls. G, No significant differences were noted in sensorimotor gating between vehicle- and PNCNO-treated CaMKIIα-tTA::TRE-hM4Di bigenic male mice (n = 10/group). Results were subjected to two-way ANOVA, followed by the Tukey’s post hoc comparisons test for experiments with four treatment groups (main effects of sex are indicated as $p < 0.05), and by the two-tailed, unpaired Student’s t test for experiments with two treatment groups. Results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05 compared with the vehicle-treated controls.