Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biol Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 18;92(1):68–80. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.02.007

Figure 3. Loss of BMAL1 function in NAc astrocytes increases locomotor response to novelty in mice during the day.

Figure 3.

(A) Schematic illustrating the bilateral stereotaxic injection of either AAV8-GFAP-Cre-GFP or GFAP-eGFP virus into the NAc of Bmal1 floxed mutant mice; injection at AP: +1.5, ML: ± 1.5, and DV: −4.4 microns resulted in a region-specific expression of the virus in the NAc. (B) GFAP-Cre-GFP virus resulted in a NAc-specific loss of BMAL1 detection by immunofluorescence (IF), specifically in GFAP+ cells (i.e., astrocytes). Arrows indicate cells with co-expression. (C) In the locomotor motor response to novelty (LRN) task, mice with a loss of BMAL1 function in NAc astrocytes (GFAP-Cre) show a significantly greater LRN relative to control mice during the day (Virus: F(1, 36) = 5.68, * p=0.02; Time: F(11, 396) = 40.41, p<0.0001; Time × Virus: F(11, 396) = 0.92, p=0.51; inset, t(35)=2.32, * p=0.02). (D) This increase in LRN is not driven by differences in habituation or overall locomotor activity across the full task (inset) Virus: F(1, 36) = 0.0003, n.s. p=0.98; Time: F(11, 396) = 16.66, p<0.0001; Time × Virus: F(11, 396) = 0.26, p=0.99; inset, t(35) = 0.46, p=0.64. (E) However, during the night, mice show no significant differences in locomotor response to novelty (Virus: F(1, 22) = 1.017, p=0.32; Time: F(11, 242) = 44.68, p<0.0001; Time × Virus: F(11, 242) = 0.62, p=0.8), (F) habituation (Virus: F(1, 22) = 2.19, p=0.15; Time: F(11, 242) = 3.28, p=0.0003; Time × Virus: F(11, 242) = 1.91, p=0.03), or (G) overall locomotor differences (top: t(21)=0.58, p=0.56; bottom: t(21)=0.91, p=0.36). White background indicates behavior run during the day (ZT 2–6). Blue background indicates behavior run during the night (ZT 14–18). Mean ± SEM; n=12–22; * p<0.05, n.s. = not significant.