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Yotova AY, Li LL, O'Leary A, Tegeder I, Reif A, Courtney MJ, Slattery DA, Freudenberg F. Synaptic proteome perturbations after maternal immune activation: Identification of embryonic and adult hippocampal changes. Brain Behav Immun 2024; 121:351-364. [PMID: 39089536 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2024.07.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2024] [Revised: 07/10/2024] [Accepted: 07/28/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Maternal immune activation (MIA) triggers neurobiological changes in offspring, potentially reshaping the molecular synaptic landscape, with the hippocampus being particularly vulnerable. However, critical details regarding developmental timing of these changes and whether they differ between males and females remain unclear. METHODS We induced MIA in C57BL/6J mice on gestational day nine using the viral mimetic poly(I:C) and performed mass spectrometry-based proteomic analyses on hippocampal synaptoneurosomes of embryonic (E18) and adult (20 ± 1 weeks) MIA offspring. RESULTS In the embryonic synaptoneurosomes, MIA led to lipid, polysaccharide, and glycoprotein metabolism pathway disruptions. In the adult synaptic proteome, we observed a dynamic shift toward transmembrane trafficking, intracellular signalling cascades, including cell death and growth, and cytoskeletal organisation. In adults, many associated pathways overlapped between males and females. However, we found distinct sex-specific enrichment of dopaminergic and glutamatergic pathways. We identified 50 proteins altered by MIA in both embryonic and adult samples (28 with the same directionality), mainly involved in presynaptic structure and synaptic vesicle function. We probed human phenome-wide association study data in the cognitive and psychiatric domains, and 49 of the 50 genes encoding these proteins were significantly associated with the investigated phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS Our data emphasise the dynamic effects of viral-like MIA on developing and mature hippocampi and provide novel targets for study following prenatal immune challenges. The 22 proteins that changed directionality from the embryonic to adult hippocampus, suggestive of compensatory over-adaptions, are particularly attractive for future investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Y Yotova
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany; Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Li-Li Li
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20520 Turku, Finland; Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20014 Turku, Finland
| | - Aet O'Leary
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany; Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Irmgard Tegeder
- Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Andreas Reif
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany; Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Michael J Courtney
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20520 Turku, Finland; Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20014 Turku, Finland
| | - David A Slattery
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Florian Freudenberg
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany; Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Frankfurt, Germany.
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Petrova B, Lacey TE, Culhane AJ, Cui J, Brook JR, Raskind A, Misra A, Lehtinen MK, Kanarek N. Profiling metabolome of mouse embryonic cerebrospinal fluid following maternal immune activation. J Biol Chem 2024:107749. [PMID: 39251136 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2024] [Revised: 08/07/2024] [Accepted: 08/25/2024] [Indexed: 09/11/2024] Open
Abstract
The embryonic cerebrospinal fluid (eCSF) plays an essential role in the development of the central nervous system (CNS), influencing processes from neurogenesis to lifelong cognitive functions. An important process affecting eCSF composition is inflammation. Inflammation during development can be studied using the maternal immune activation (MIA) mouse model, which displays altered cytokine eCSF composition and mimics neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The limited nature of eCSF as a biosample restricts its research and has hindered our understanding of the eCSF's role in brain pathologies. Specifically, investigation of the small molecule composition of the eCSF is lacking, leaving this aspect of the eCSF composition under-studied. We report here the eCSF metabolome as a resource for investigating developmental neuropathologies from a metabolic perspective. Our reference metabolome includes comprehensive MS1 and MS2 datasets and evaluates two mouse strains (CD-1 and C57Bl/6) and two developmental time points (E12.5 and E14.5). We illustrate the reference metabolome's utility by using untargeted metabolomics to identify eCSF-specific compositional changes following MIA. We uncover MIA-relevant metabolic pathways as differentially abundant in eCSF and validate changes in glucocorticoid and kynurenine pathways through targeted metabolomics approaches. Our resource will guide future studies into the causes of MIA neuropathology and the impact of eCSF composition on brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boryana Petrova
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 02115.
| | - Tiara E Lacey
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Graduate Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Boston, MA 02115
| | - Andrew J Culhane
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Jin Cui
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Jeannette R Brook
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | | | - Aditya Misra
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Maria K Lehtinen
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 02115; Graduate Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Boston, MA 02115
| | - Naama Kanarek
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 02115; Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
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King DP, Abdalaziz M, Majewska AK, Cameron JL, Fudge JL. Microglia morphology in the developing primate amygdala and effects of early life stress. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.08.15.608133. [PMID: 39211183 PMCID: PMC11360906 DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.15.608133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/04/2024]
Abstract
A unique pool of immature glutamatergic neurons in the primate amygdala, known as the paralaminar nucleus (PL), are maturing between infancy and adolescence. The PL is a potential substrate for the steep growth curve of amygdala volume during this developmental period. A microglial component is also embedded among the PL neurons, and likely supports local neuronal maturation and emerging synaptogenesis. Microglia may alter neuronal growth following environmental perturbations such as stress. Using multiple measures, we first found that microglia in the infant primate PL had relatively large somas, and a small arbor size. In contrast, microglia in the adolescent PL had a smaller soma, and a larger dendritic arbor. We then examined microglial morphology in the PL after a novel maternal separation protocol, to examine the effects of early life stress. After maternal separation, the microglia had increased soma size, arbor size and complexity. Surprisingly, strong effects were seen not only in the infant PL, but also in the adolescent PL from subjects who had experienced the separation many years earlier. We conclude that under maternal-rearing conditions, PL microglia morphology tracks PL neuronal growth, progressing to a more 'mature' phenotype by adolescence. Maternal separation has long-lasting effects on microglia, altering their normal developmental trajectory, and resulting in a 'hyper-ramified' phenotype that persists for years. We speculate that these changes have consequences for neuronal development in young primates. Significance Statement The paralaminar (PL) nucleus of the amygdala is an important source of plasticity, due to its unique repository of immature glutamatergic neurons. PL immature neurons mature between birth and adolescence. This process is likely supported by synaptogenesis, which requires microglia. Between infancy and adolescence in macaques, PL microglia became more dense, and shifted to a 'ramified' phenotype, consistent with increased synaptic pruning functions. Early life stress in the form of maternal separation, however, blunted this normal trajectory, leading to persistent 'parainflammatory' microglial morphologies. We speculate that early life stress may alter PL neuronal maturation and synapse formation through microglia.
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Camacho-Morales A, Cárdenas-Tueme M. Prenatal Programming of Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1 Signaling in Autism Susceptibility. Mol Neurobiol 2024; 61:6119-6134. [PMID: 38277116 DOI: 10.1007/s12035-024-03940-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that involves functional and structural defects in selective central nervous system (CNS) regions, harming the individual capability to process and respond to external stimuli, including impaired verbal and non-verbal communications. Etiological causes of ASD have not been fully clarified; however, prenatal activation of the innate immune system by external stimuli might infiltrate peripheral immune cells into the fetal CNS and activate cytokine secretion by microglia and astrocytes. For instance, genomic and postmortem histological analysis has identified proinflammatory gene signatures, microglia-related expressed genes, and neuroinflammatory markers in the brain during ASD diagnosis. Active neuroinflammation might also occur during the developmental stage, promoting the establishment of a defective brain connectome and increasing susceptibility to ASD after birth. While still under investigation, we tested the hypothesis whether the monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) signaling is prenatally programmed to favor peripheral immune cell infiltration and activate microglia into the fetal CNS, setting susceptibility to autism-like behavior. In this review, we will comprehensively provide the current understanding of the prenatal activation of MCP-1 signaling by external stimuli during the developmental stage as a new selective node to promote neuroinflammation, brain structural alterations, and behavioral defects associated to ASD diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Camacho-Morales
- College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
- Center for Research and Development in Health Sciences, Neurometabolism Unit, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon, San Nicolás de los Garza, Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
| | - Marcela Cárdenas-Tueme
- Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de La Salud and The Institute for Obesity Research, 64710, Monterrey, Mexico
- Nutrition Unit, Center for Research and Development in Health Sciences, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, 64460, Monterrey, Mexico
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5
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Lockshin ER, Calakos N. The integrated stress response in brain diseases: A double-edged sword for proteostasis and synapses. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2024; 87:102886. [PMID: 38901329 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2024] [Revised: 05/22/2024] [Accepted: 05/24/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
The integrated stress response (ISR) is a highly conserved biochemical pathway that regulates protein synthesis. The ISR is activated in response to diverse stressors to restore cellular homeostasis. As such, the ISR is implicated in a wide range of diseases, including brain disorders. However, in the brain, the ISR also has potent influence on processes beyond proteostasis, namely synaptic plasticity, learning and memory. Thus, in the setting of brain diseases, ISR activity may have dual effects on proteostasis and synaptic function. In this review, we consider the ISR's contribution to brain disorders through the lens of its potential effects on synaptic plasticity. From these examples, we illustrate that at times ISR activity may be a "double-edged sword". We also highlight its potential as a therapeutic target to improve circuit function in brain diseases independent of its role in disease pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elana R Lockshin
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Nicole Calakos
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Department of Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
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Mastenbroek LJM, Kooistra SM, Eggen BJL, Prins JR. The role of microglia in early neurodevelopment and the effects of maternal immune activation. Semin Immunopathol 2024; 46:1. [PMID: 38990389 PMCID: PMC11239780 DOI: 10.1007/s00281-024-01017-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2024] [Accepted: 07/01/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024]
Abstract
Activation of the maternal immune system during gestation has been associated with an increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring, particularly schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. Microglia, the tissue-resident macrophages of the central nervous system, are implicated as potential mediators of this increased risk. Early in development, microglia start populating the embryonic central nervous system and in addition to their traditional role as immune responders under homeostatic conditions, microglia are also intricately involved in various early neurodevelopmental processes. The timing of immune activation may interfere with microglia functioning during early neurodevelopment, potentially leading to long-term consequences in postnatal life. In this review we will discuss the involvement of microglia in brain development during the prenatal and early postnatal stages of life, while also examining the effects of maternal immune activation on microglia and neurodevelopmental processes. Additionally, we discuss recent single cell RNA-sequencing studies focusing on microglia during prenatal development, and hypothesize how early life microglial priming, potentially through epigenetic reprogramming, may be related to neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- L J M Mastenbroek
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - S M Kooistra
- Department of BioMedical Sciences, Section Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - B J L Eggen
- Department of BioMedical Sciences, Section Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - J R Prins
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
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Fitzgerald E, Pokhvisneva I, Patel S, Yu Chan S, Peng Tan A, Chen H, Pelufo Silveira P, Meaney MJ. Microglial function interacts with the environment to affect sex-specific depression risk. Brain Behav Immun 2024; 119:597-606. [PMID: 38670238 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2024.04.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2023] [Revised: 04/02/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
There is a two-fold higher incidence of depression in females compared to men with recent studies suggesting a role for microglia in conferring this sex-dependent depression risk. In this study we investigated the nature of this relation. Using GWAS enrichment, gene-set enrichment analysis and Mendelian randomization, we found minimal evidence for a direct relation between genes functionally related to microglia and sex-dependent genetic risk for depression. We then used expression quantitative trait loci and single nucleus RNA-sequencing resources to generate polygenic scores (PGS) representative of individual variation in microglial function in the adult (UK Biobank; N = 54753-72682) and fetal (ALSPAC; N = 1452) periods. The adult microglial PGS moderated the association between BMI (UK Biobank; beta = 0.001, 95 %CI 0.0009 to 0.003, P = 7.74E-6) and financial insecurity (UK Biobank; beta = 0.001, 95 %CI 0.005 to 0.015, P = 2E-4) with depressive symptoms in females. The fetal microglia PGS moderated the association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and offspring depressive symptoms at 24 years in females (ALSPAC; beta = 0.04, 95 %CI 0.004 to 0.07, P = 0.03). We found no evidence for an interaction between the microglial PGS and depression risk factors in males. Our results illustrate a role for microglial function in the conferral of sex-dependent depression risk following exposure to a depression risk factor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eamon Fitzgerald
- Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, McGill University, Canada; Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada.
| | - Irina Pokhvisneva
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada
| | - Sachin Patel
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada
| | - Shi Yu Chan
- Translational Neuroscience Program, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore
| | - Ai Peng Tan
- Translational Neuroscience Program, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore; Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National University Health System, Singapore; Brain - Body Initiative, Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore
| | - Helen Chen
- Department of Psychological Medicine, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore; Duke-National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Patricia Pelufo Silveira
- Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, McGill University, Canada; Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada; Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Michael J Meaney
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada; Translational Neuroscience Program, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore; Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Brain - Body Initiative, Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore.
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Finch CE, Thorwald MA. Inhaled Pollutants of the Gero-Exposome and Later-Life Health. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2024; 79:glae107. [PMID: 38644649 PMCID: PMC11170295 DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glae107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Inhaled air pollutants (AirP) comprise extraordinarily diverse particles, volatiles, and gases from traffic, wildfire, cigarette smoke, dust, and various other sources. These pollutants contain numerous toxic components, which collectively differ in relative levels of components, but broadly share chemical classes. Exposure and health outcomes from AirP are complex, depending on pollutant source, duration of exposure, and socioeconomic status. We discuss examples in the current literature on organ responses to AirP, with a focus on lung, arteries, and brain. Some transcriptional responses are shared. It is well accepted that AirP contributes to Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions in the Gero-Exposome. However, we do not know which chemical compounds initiate these changes and how activation of these transcriptional pathways is further modified by genetics and prenatal development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caleb E Finch
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Max A Thorwald
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
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Batorsky R, Ceasrine AM, Shook LL, Kislal S, Bordt EA, Devlin BA, Perlis RH, Slonim DK, Bilbo SD, Edlow AG. Hofbauer cells and fetal brain microglia share transcriptional profiles and responses to maternal diet-induced obesity. Cell Rep 2024; 43:114326. [PMID: 38848212 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2024] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Maternal immune activation is associated with adverse offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes, many mediated by in utero microglial programming. As microglia remain inaccessible throughout development, identification of noninvasive biomarkers reflecting fetal brain microglial programming could permit screening and intervention. We used lineage tracing to demonstrate the shared ontogeny between fetal brain macrophages (microglia) and fetal placental macrophages (Hofbauer cells) in a mouse model of maternal diet-induced obesity, and single-cell RNA-seq to demonstrate shared transcriptional programs. Comparison with human datasets demonstrated conservation of placental resident macrophage signatures between mice and humans. Single-cell RNA-seq identified common alterations in fetal microglial and Hofbauer cell gene expression induced by maternal obesity, as well as sex differences in these alterations. We propose that Hofbauer cells, which are easily accessible at birth, provide insights into fetal brain microglial programs and may facilitate the early identification of offspring vulnerable to neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Batorsky
- Data Intensive Studies Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
| | - Alexis M Ceasrine
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Lydia L Shook
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sezen Kislal
- Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Evan A Bordt
- Department of Pediatrics, Lurie Center for Autism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Benjamin A Devlin
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Roy H Perlis
- Department of Psychiatry and Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Donna K Slonim
- Department of Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
| | - Staci D Bilbo
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Lurie Center for Autism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Andrea G Edlow
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
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Fanikos M, Kohn SA, Stamato R, Brenhouse HC, Gildawie KR. Impacts of age and environment on postnatal microglial activity: Consequences for cognitive function following early life adversity. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0306022. [PMID: 38917075 PMCID: PMC11198844 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2024] [Accepted: 06/10/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Early life adversity (ELA) increases the likelihood of later-life neuropsychiatric disorders and cognitive dysfunction. Importantly, ELA, neuropsychiatric disorders, and cognitive deficits all involve aberrant immune signaling. Microglia are the primary neuroimmune cells and regulate brain development. Microglia are particularly sensitive to early life insults, which can program their responses to future challenges. ELA in the form of maternal separation (MS) in rats alters later-life microglial morphology and the inflammatory profile of the prefrontal cortex, a region important for cognition. However, the role of microglial responses during MS in the development of later cognition is not known. Therefore, here we aimed to determine whether the presence of microglia during MS mediates long-term impacts on adult working memory. Clodronate liposomes were used to transiently deplete microglia from the brain, while empty liposomes were used as a control. We hypothesized that if microglia mediate the long-term impacts of ELA on working memory in adulthood, then depleting microglia during MS would prevent these deficits. Importantly, microglial function shifts throughout the neonatal period, so an exploratory investigation assessed whether depletion during the early versus late neonatal period had different effects on adult working memory. Surprisingly, empty liposome treatment during the early, but not late, postnatal period induced microglial activity changes that compounded with MS to impair working memory in females. In contrast, microglial depletion later in infancy impaired later life working memory in females, suggesting that microglial function during late infancy plays an important role in the development of cognitive function. Together, these findings suggest that microglia shift their sensitivity to early life insults across development. Our findings also highlight the potential for MS to impact some developmental processes only when compounded with additional neuroimmune challenges in a sex-dependent manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michaela Fanikos
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Skylar A. Kohn
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Rebecca Stamato
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Heather C. Brenhouse
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Kelsea R. Gildawie
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
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Hou Y, Li Y, Yang D, Zhao Y, Feng T, Zheng W, Xian P, Liu X, Wu S, Wang Y. Involvement and regulation of the left anterior cingulate cortex in the ultrasonic communication deficits of autistic mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2024; 18:1387447. [PMID: 38813469 PMCID: PMC11133516 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1387447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2024] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of diseases often characterized by poor sociability and challenges in social communication. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a core brain region for social function. Whether it contributes to the defects of social communication in ASD and whether it could be physiologically modulated to improve social communication have been poorly investigated. This study is aimed at addressing these questions. Methods Fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) mutant and valproic acid (VPA)-induced ASD mice were used. Male-female social interaction was adopted to elicit ultrasonic vocalization (USV). Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate USV-activated neurons. Optogenetic and precise target transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were utilized to modulate anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) neuronal activity. Results In wild-type (WT) mice, USV elicited rapid expression of c-Fos in the excitatory neurons of the left but not the right ACC. Optogenetic inhibition of the left ACC neurons in WT mice effectively suppressed social-induced USV. In FMR1-/-- and VPA-induced ASD mice, significantly fewer c-Fos/CaMKII-positive neurons were observed in the left ACC following USV compared to the control. Optogenetic activation of the left ACC neurons in FMR1-/- or VPA-pretreated mice significantly increased social activity elicited by USV. Furthermore, precisely stimulating neuronal activity in the left ACC, but not the right ACC, by repeated TMS effectively rescued the USV emission in these ASD mice. Discussion The excitatory neurons in the left ACC are responsive to socially elicited USV. Their silence mediates the deficiency of social communication in FMR1-/- and VPA-induced ASD mice. Precisely modulating the left ACC neuronal activity by repeated TMS can promote the social communication in FMR1-/- and VPA-pretreated mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yilin Hou
- Department of Military Medical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Yuqian Li
- Department of Neurobiology and Institute of Neurosciences, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Dingding Yang
- Department of Neurobiology and Institute of Neurosciences, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Youyi Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Military Stomatology & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Shaanxi Engineering Research, Center for Dental Materials and Advanced Manufacture, Department of Anesthesiology, School of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Tingwei Feng
- Department of Military Medical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Wei’an Zheng
- Department of Neurobiology and Institute of Neurosciences, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Panpan Xian
- Department of Neurobiology and Institute of Neurosciences, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Xufeng Liu
- Department of Military Medical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Shengxi Wu
- Department of Neurobiology and Institute of Neurosciences, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
| | - Yazhou Wang
- Department of Neurobiology and Institute of Neurosciences, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
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Devlin BA, Nguyen DM, Grullon G, Clark MJ, Ceasrine AM, Deja M, Shah A, Ati S, Finn A, Ribeiro D, Schaefer A, Bilbo SD. Neuron Derived Cytokine Interleukin-34 Controls Developmental Microglia Function. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.10.589920. [PMID: 38766127 PMCID: PMC11100801 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.10.589920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
Neuron-microglia interactions dictate the development of neuronal circuits in the brain. However, the factors that support and broadly regulate these processes across developmental stages are largely unknown. Here, we find that IL34, a neuron-derived cytokine, is upregulated in development and plays a critical role in supporting and maintaining neuroprotective, mature microglia in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of mice. We show that IL34 mRNA and protein is upregulated in neurons in the second week of postnatal life and that this increase coincides with increases in microglia number and expression of mature, homeostatic markers, e.g., TMEM119. We also found that IL34 mRNA is higher in more active neurons, and higher in excitatory (compared to inhibitory) neurons. Genetic KO of IL34 prevents the functional maturation of microglia and results in an anxiolytic phenotype in these mice by adulthood. Acute, low dose blocking of IL34 at postnatal day (P)15 in mice decreased microglial TMEM119 expression and increased aberrant microglial phagocytosis of thalamocortical synapses within the ACC. In contrast, viral overexpression of IL34 early in life (P1-P8) caused early maturation of microglia and prevented microglial phagocytosis of thalamocortical synapses during the appropriate neurodevelopmental refinement window. Taken together, these findings establish IL34 as a key regulator of neuron-microglia crosstalk in postnatal brain development, controlling both microglial maturation and synapse engulfment.
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13
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Cealie MY, Douglas JC, Swan HK, Vonkaenel ED, McCall MN, Drew PD, Majewska AK. Developmental Ethanol Exposure Impacts Purkinje Cells but Not Microglia in the Young Adult Cerebellum. Cells 2024; 13:386. [PMID: 38474350 PMCID: PMC10930603 DOI: 10.3390/cells13050386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2024] [Revised: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) caused by developmental ethanol exposure lead to cerebellar impairments, including motor problems, decreased cerebellar weight, and cell death. Alterations in the sole output of the cerebellar cortex, Purkinje cells, and central nervous system immune cells, microglia, have been reported in animal models of FASD. To determine how developmental ethanol exposure affects adult cerebellar microglia and Purkinje cells, we used a human third-trimester binge exposure model in which mice received ethanol or saline from postnatal (P) days 4-9. In adolescence, cerebellar cranial windows were implanted and mice were aged to young adulthood for examination of microglia and Purkinje cells in vivo with two-photon imaging or in fixed tissue. Ethanol had no effect on microglia density, morphology, dynamics, or injury response. However, Purkinje cell linear frequency was reduced by ethanol. Microglia-Purkinje cell interactions in the Purkinje Cell Layer were altered in females compared to males. Overall, developmental ethanol exposure had few effects on cerebellar microglia in young adulthood and Purkinje cells appeared to be more susceptible to its effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- MaKenna Y. Cealie
- Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14620, USA;
| | - James C. Douglas
- Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA; (J.C.D.); (P.D.D.)
| | - Hannah K. Swan
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14620, USA; (H.K.S.); (M.N.M.)
| | - Erik D. Vonkaenel
- Earth and Biological Systems Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA;
| | - Matthew N. McCall
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14620, USA; (H.K.S.); (M.N.M.)
| | - Paul D. Drew
- Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA; (J.C.D.); (P.D.D.)
| | - Ania K. Majewska
- Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14620, USA;
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14
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Walder-Christensen K, Abdelaal K, Klein H, Thomas GE, Gallagher NM, Talbot A, Adamson E, Rawls A, Hughes D, Mague SD, Dzirasa K, Carlson DE. Electome network factors: Capturing emotional brain networks related to health and disease. CELL REPORTS METHODS 2024; 4:100691. [PMID: 38215761 PMCID: PMC10832286 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Revised: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Therapeutic development for mental disorders has been slow despite the high worldwide prevalence of illness. Unfortunately, cellular and circuit insights into disease etiology have largely failed to generalize across individuals that carry the same diagnosis, reflecting an unmet need to identify convergent mechanisms that would facilitate optimal treatment. Here, we discuss how mesoscale networks can encode affect and other cognitive processes. These networks can be discovered through electrical functional connectome (electome) analysis, a method built upon explainable machine learning models for analyzing and interpreting mesoscale brain-wide signals in a behavioral context. We also outline best practices for identifying these generalizable, interpretable, and biologically relevant networks. Looking forward, translational electome analysis can span species and various moods, cognitive processes, or other brain states, supporting translational medicine. Thus, we argue that electome analysis provides potential translational biomarkers for developing next-generation therapeutics that exhibit high efficacy across heterogeneous disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn Walder-Christensen
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Karim Abdelaal
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Hunter Klein
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Gwenaëlle E Thomas
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Neil M Gallagher
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York City, NY 10065, USA
| | - Austin Talbot
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Elise Adamson
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Ashleigh Rawls
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Dalton Hughes
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Stephen D Mague
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
| | - Kafui Dzirasa
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
| | - David E Carlson
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
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15
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Breach MR, Akouri HE, Costantine S, Dodson CM, McGovern N, Lenz KM. Prenatal allergic inflammation in rats confers sex-specific alterations to oxytocin and vasopressin innervation in social brain regions. Horm Behav 2024; 157:105427. [PMID: 37743114 PMCID: PMC10842952 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2023] [Revised: 08/30/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Prenatal exposure to inflammation via maternal infection, allergy, or autoimmunity increases one's risk for developing neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Many of these disorders are associated with altered social behavior, yet the mechanisms underlying inflammation-induced social impairment remain unknown. We previously found that a rat model of acute allergic maternal immune activation (MIA) produced deficits like those found in MIA-linked disorders, including impairments in juvenile social play behavior. The neuropeptides oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) regulate social behavior, including juvenile social play, across mammalian species. OT and AVP are also implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social impairment, making them good candidate regulators of social deficits after MIA. We profiled how acute prenatal exposure to allergic MIA changed OT and AVP innervation in several brain regions important for social behavior in juvenile male and female rat offspring. We also assessed whether MIA altered additional behavioral phenotypes related to sociality and anxiety. We found that allergic MIA increased OT and AVP fiber immunoreactivity in the medial amygdala and had sex-specific effects in the nucleus accumbens, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and lateral hypothalamic area. We also found that MIA reduced ultrasonic vocalizations in neonates and increased the stereotypical nature of self-grooming behavior. Overall, these findings suggest that there may be sex-specific mechanisms underlying MIA-induced behavioral impairment and underscore OT and AVP as ideal candidates for future mechanistic studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michaela R Breach
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Habib E Akouri
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Sophia Costantine
- Department of Neuroscience, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Claire M Dodson
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Nolan McGovern
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Kathryn M Lenz
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Department of Neuroscience, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
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16
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Gyles TM, Nestler EJ, Parise EM. Advancing preclinical chronic stress models to promote therapeutic discovery for human stress disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology 2024; 49:215-226. [PMID: 37349475 PMCID: PMC10700361 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-023-01625-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023]
Abstract
There is an urgent need to develop more effective treatments for stress-related illnesses, which include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. We view animal models as playing an essential role in this effort, but to date, such approaches have generally not succeeded in developing therapeutics with new mechanisms of action. This is partly due to the complexity of the brain and its disorders, but also to inherent difficulties in modeling human disorders in rodents and to the incorrect use of animal models: namely, trying to recapitulate a human syndrome in a rodent which is likely not possible as opposed to using animals to understand underlying mechanisms and evaluating potential therapeutic paths. Recent transcriptomic research has established the ability of several different chronic stress procedures in rodents to recapitulate large portions of the molecular pathology seen in postmortem brain tissue of individuals with depression. These findings provide crucial validation for the clear relevance of rodent stress models to better understand the pathophysiology of human stress disorders and help guide therapeutic discovery. In this review, we first discuss the current limitations of preclinical chronic stress models as well as traditional behavioral phenotyping approaches. We then explore opportunities to dramatically enhance the translational use of rodent stress models through the application of new experimental technologies. The goal of this review is to promote the synthesis of these novel approaches in rodents with human cell-based approaches and ultimately with early-phase proof-of-concept studies in humans to develop more effective treatments for human stress disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trevonn M Gyles
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA
| | - Eric J Nestler
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA
| | - Eric M Parise
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA.
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17
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Petrova B, Lacey TE, Culhane AJ, Cui J, Raskin A, Misra A, Lehtinen MK, Kanarek N. Metabolomics of Mouse Embryonic CSF Following Maternal Immune Activation. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.12.06.570507. [PMID: 38105934 PMCID: PMC10723469 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.06.570507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) serves various roles in the developing central nervous system (CNS), from neurogenesis to lifelong cognitive functions. Changes in CSF composition due to inflammation can impact brain function. We recently identified an abnormal cytokine signature in embryonic CSF (eCSF) following maternal immune activation (MIA), a mouse model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We hypothesized that MIA leads to other alterations in eCSF composition and employed untargeted metabolomics to profile changes in the eCSF metabolome in mice after inducing MIA with polyI:C. We report these data here as a resource, include a comprehensive MS1 and MS2 reference dataset, and present additional datasets comparing two mouse strains (CD-1 and C57Bl/6) and two developmental time points (E12.5 and E14.5). Targeted metabolomics further validated changes upon MIA. We show a significant elevation of glucocorticoids and kynurenine pathway related metabolites. Both pathways are relevant for suppressing inflammation or could be informative as disease biomarkers. Our resource should inform future mechanistic studies regarding the etiology of MIA neuropathology and roles and contributions of eCSF metabolites to brain development.
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18
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Batorsky R, Ceasrine AM, Shook LL, Kislal S, Bordt EA, Devlin BA, Perlis RH, Slonim DK, Bilbo SD, Edlow AG. Hofbauer cells and fetal brain microglia share transcriptional profiles and responses to maternal diet-induced obesity. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.12.16.571680. [PMID: 38187648 PMCID: PMC10769274 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.16.571680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
Maternal immune activation is associated with adverse offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes, many mediated by in utero microglial programming. As microglia remain inaccessible throughout development, identification of noninvasive biomarkers reflecting fetal brain microglial programming could permit screening and intervention. We used lineage tracing to demonstrate the shared ontogeny between fetal brain macrophages (microglia) and fetal placental macrophages (Hofbauer cells) in a mouse model of maternal diet-induced obesity, and single-cell RNA-seq to demonstrate shared transcriptional programs. Comparison with human datasets demonstrated conservation of placental resident macrophage signatures between mice and humans. Single-cell RNA-seq identified common alterations in fetal microglial and Hofbauer cell gene expression induced by maternal obesity, as well as sex differences in these alterations. We propose that Hofbauer cells, which are easily accessible at birth, provide novel insights into fetal brain microglial programs, and may facilitate the early identification of offspring vulnerable to neurodevelopmental disorders in the setting of maternal exposures.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alexis M. Ceasrine
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Lydia L. Shook
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Sezen Kislal
- Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Evan A. Bordt
- Department of Pediatrics, Lurie Center for Autism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Benjamin A. Devlin
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Roy H. Perlis
- Department of Psychiatry and Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Donna K. Slonim
- Department of Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA
| | - Staci D. Bilbo
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Lurie Center for Autism, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
| | - Andrea G. Edlow
- Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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19
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Musillo C, Creutzberg KC, Collacchi B, Ajmone-Cat MA, De Simone R, Lepre M, Amrein I, Riva MA, Berry A, Cirulli F. Bdnf-Nrf-2 crosstalk and emotional behavior are disrupted in a sex-dependent fashion in adolescent mice exposed to maternal stress or maternal obesity. Transl Psychiatry 2023; 13:399. [PMID: 38105264 PMCID: PMC10725882 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02701-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Revised: 11/28/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Maternal obesity has been recognized as a stressor affecting the developing fetal brain, leading to long-term negative outcomes comparable to those resulting from maternal psychological stress, although the mechanisms have not been completely elucidated. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that adverse prenatal conditions as diverse as maternal stress and maternal obesity might affect emotional regulation and stress response in the offspring through common pathways, with a main focus on oxidative stress and neuroplasticity. We contrasted and compared adolescent male and female offspring in two mouse models of maternal psychophysical stress (restraint during pregnancy - PNS) and maternal obesity (high-fat diet before and during gestation - mHFD) by combining behavioral assays, evaluation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity, immunohistochemistry and gene expression analysis of selected markers of neuronal function and neuroinflammation in the hippocampus, a key region involved in stress appraisal. Prenatal administration of the antioxidant N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) was used as a strategy to protect fetal neurodevelopment from the negative effects of PNS and mHFD. Our findings show that these two stressors produce overlapping effects, reducing brain anti-oxidant defenses (Nrf-2) and leading to sex-dependent impairments of hippocampal Bdnf expression and alterations of the emotional behavior and HPA axis functionality. Prenatal NAC administration, by restoring the redox balance, was able to exert long-term protective effects on brain development, suggesting that the modulation of redox pathways might be an effective strategy to target common shared mechanisms between different adverse prenatal conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Musillo
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy
- Ph.D. Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Kerstin C Creutzberg
- Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Barbara Collacchi
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Maria Antonietta Ajmone-Cat
- National Center for Drug Research and Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Roberta De Simone
- National Center for Drug Research and Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Marcello Lepre
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy
| | - Irmgard Amrein
- Functional Neuroanatomy, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Marco A Riva
- Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Biological Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy
| | - Alessandra Berry
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy.
| | - Francesca Cirulli
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy.
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20
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Reed EG, Keller-Norrell PR. Minding the Gap: Exploring Neuroinflammatory and Microglial Sex Differences in Alzheimer's Disease. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:17377. [PMID: 38139206 PMCID: PMC10743742 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242417377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Research into Alzheimer's Disease (AD) describes a link between AD and the resident immune cells of the brain, the microglia. Further, this suspected link is thought to have underlying sex effects, although the mechanisms of these effects are only just beginning to be understood. Many of these insights are the result of policies put in place by funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to consider sex as a biological variable (SABV) and the move towards precision medicine due to continued lackluster therapeutic options. The purpose of this review is to provide an updated assessment of the current research that summarizes sex differences and the research pertaining to microglia and their varied responses in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin G. Reed
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, OH 44242, USA
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21
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Murlanova K, Pletnikov MV. Modeling psychotic disorders: Environment x environment interaction. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 152:105310. [PMID: 37437753 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/14/2023]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a major psychotic disorder with multifactorial etiology that includes interactions between genetic vulnerability and environmental risk factors. In addition, interplay of multiple environmental adversities affects neurodevelopment and may increase the individual risk of developing schizophrenia. Consistent with the two-hit hypothesis of schizophrenia, we review rodent models that combine maternal immune activation as the first hit with other adverse environmental exposures as the second hit. We discuss the strengths and pitfalls of the current animal models of environment x environment interplay and propose some future directions to advance the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kateryna Murlanova
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
| | - Mikhail V Pletnikov
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
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22
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Qi C, Wang L, Lu Y, Jin C. Editorial: Molecules, environments, and neurological disorders. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2023; 14:1244800. [PMID: 37701895 PMCID: PMC10494539 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1244800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Cai Qi
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Lu Wang
- Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Yong Lu
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chunyu Jin
- Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
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23
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Hing B, Mitchell SB, Eberle M, Filali Y, Hultman I, Matkovich M, Kasturirangan M, Wyche W, Jimenez A, Velamuri R, Johnson M, Srivastava S, Hultman R. Single Cell Transcriptome of Stress Vulnerability Network in mouse Prefrontal Cortex. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.14.540705. [PMID: 37662266 PMCID: PMC10473598 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.14.540705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Increased vulnerability to stress is a major risk factor for the manifestation of several mood disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD). Despite the status of MDD as a significant donor to global disability, the complex integration of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the behavioral display of such disorders has made a thorough understanding of related etiology elusive. Recent developments suggest that a brain-wide network approach is needed, taking into account the complex interplay of cell types spanning multiple brain regions. Single cell RNA-sequencing technologies can provide transcriptomic profiling at the single-cell level across heterogenous samples. Furthermore, we have previously used local field potential oscillations and machine learning to identify an electrical brain network that is indicative of a predisposed vulnerability state. Thus, this study combined single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-Seq) with electrical brain network measures of the stress-vulnerable state, providing a unique opportunity to access the relationship between stress network activity and transcriptomic changes within individual cell types. We found especially high numbers of differentially expressed genes between animals with high and low stress vulnerability brain network activity in astrocytes and glutamatergic neurons but we estimated that vulnerability network activity depends most on GABAergic neurons. High vulnerability network activity included upregulation of microglia and mitochondrial and metabolic pathways, while lower vulnerability involved synaptic regulation. Genes that were differentially regulated with vulnerability network activity significantly overlapped with genes identified as having significant SNPs by human GWAS for depression. Taken together, these data provide the gene expression architecture of a previously uncharacterized stress vulnerability brain state, enabling new understanding and intervention of predisposition to stress susceptibility.
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24
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Talbot A, Dunson D, Dzirasa K, Carlson D. Estimating a brain network predictive of stress and genotype with supervised autoencoders. J R Stat Soc Ser C Appl Stat 2023; 72:912-936. [PMID: 37662555 PMCID: PMC10474874 DOI: 10.1093/jrsssc/qlad035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2020] [Revised: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Targeted brain stimulation has the potential to treat mental illnesses. We develop an approach to help design protocols by identifying relevant multi-region electrical dynamics. Our approach models these dynamics as a superposition of latent networks, where the latent variables predict a relevant outcome. We use supervised autoencoders (SAEs) to improve predictive performance in this context, describe the conditions where SAEs improve predictions, and provide modelling constraints to ensure biological relevance. We experimentally validate our approach by finding a network associated with stress that aligns with a previous stimulation protocol and characterizing a genotype associated with bipolar disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David Dunson
- Department of Statistical Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Kafui Dzirasa
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
| | - David Carlson
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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25
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Yotova AY, Li LL, O’Leary A, Tegeder I, Reif A, Courtney MJ, Slattery DA, Freudenberg F. Embryonic and adult synaptic proteome perturbations after maternal immune activation: Identification of persistent changes relevant for early intervention. RESEARCH SQUARE 2023:rs.3.rs-3100753. [PMID: 37461513 PMCID: PMC10350178 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3100753/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
Maternal infections during pregnancy pose an increased risk for neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders (NPDs) in the offspring. Here, we examined age- and sex-dependent dynamic changes of the hippocampal synaptic proteome after maternal immune activation (MIA) in embryonic and adult mice. Adult male and female MIA offspring exhibited social deficits and sex-specific depression-like behaviours, among others, validating the model. Furthermore, we observed dose-, age-, and sex-dependent synaptic proteome differences. Analysis of the embryonic synaptic proteome implicates sphingolipid and ketoacid metabolism pathway disruptions during neurodevelopment for NPD-pertinent sequelae. In the embryonic hippocampus, prenatal immune activation also led to changes in neuronal guidance, glycosphingolipid metabolism important for signalling and myelination, and post-translational modification of proteins that regulate intercellular interaction and developmental timing. In adulthood, the observed changes in synaptoneurosomes revealed a dynamic shift toward transmembrane trafficking, intracellular signalling cascades, and hormone-mediated metabolism. Importantly, 68 of the proteins with differential abundance in the embryonic brains of MIA offspring were also altered in adulthood, 75% of which retained their directionality. These proteins are involved in synaptic organisation, neurotransmitter receptor regulation, and the vesicle cycle. A cluster of persistently upregulated proteins, including AKT3, PAK1/3, PPP3CA, formed a functional network enriched in the embryonic brain that is involved in cellular responses to environmental stimuli. To infer a link between the overlapping protein alterations and cognitive and psychiatric traits, we probed human phenome-wise association study data for cognitive and psychiatric phenotypes and all, but PORCN were significantly associated with the investigated domains. Our data provide insights into the dynamic effects of an early prenatal immune activation on developing and mature hippocampi and highlights targets for early intervention in individuals exposed to such immune challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Y. Yotova
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany
- Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Li-Li Li
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20520 Turku, Finland; Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20014, Turku, Finland
| | - Aet O’Leary
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany
- Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Irmgard Tegeder
- Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Andreas Reif
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Michael J Courtney
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20520 Turku, Finland; Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, 20014, Turku, Finland
| | - David A. Slattery
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Florian Freudenberg
- Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Frankfurt, Germany
- Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Frankfurt, Germany
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26
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von Arx AS, Dawson K, Lin HY, Mattei D, Notter T, Meyer U, Schalbetter SM. Prefrontal microglia deficiency during adolescence disrupts adult cognitive functions and synaptic structures: A follow-up study in female mice. Brain Behav Immun 2023; 111:230-246. [PMID: 37100210 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2022] [Revised: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) provides executive top-down control of a variety of cognitive processes. A distinctive feature of the PFC is its protracted structural and functional maturation throughout adolescence to early adulthood, which is necessary for acquiring mature cognitive abilities. Using a mouse model of cell-specific, transient and local depletion of microglia, which is based on intracerebral injection of clodronate disodium salt (CDS) into the PFC of adolescent male mice, we recently demonstrated that microglia contribute to the functional and structural maturation of the PFC in males. Because microglia biology and cortical maturation are partly sexually dimorphic, the main objective of the present study was to examine whether microglia similarly regulate this maturational process in female mice as well. Here, we show that a single, bilateral intra-PFC injection of CDS in adolescent (6-week-old) female mice induces a local and transient depletion (70 to 80% decrease from controls) of prefrontal microglia during a restricted window of adolescence without affecting neuronal or astrocytic cell populations. This transient microglia deficiency was sufficient to disrupt PFC-associated cognitive functions and synaptic structures at adult age. Inducing transient prefrontal microglia depletion in adult female mice did not cause these deficits, demonstrating that the adult PFC, unlike the adolescent PFC, is resilient to transient microglia deficiency in terms of lasting cognitive and synaptic maladaptations. Together with our previous findings in males, the present findings suggest that microglia contribute to the maturation of the female PFC in a similar way as to the prefrontal maturation occurring in males.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anina S von Arx
- Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Vetsuisse, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Kara Dawson
- Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Vetsuisse, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Han-Yu Lin
- Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Vetsuisse, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Daniele Mattei
- MSSM Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Tina Notter
- Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Urs Meyer
- Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Vetsuisse, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Sina M Schalbetter
- Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Vetsuisse, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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27
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Smith CJ, Rendina DN, Kingsbury MA, Malacon KE, Nguyen DM, Tran JJ, Devlin BA, Raju RM, Clark MJ, Burgett L, Zhang JH, Cetinbas M, Sadreyev RI, Chen K, Iyer MS, Bilbo SD. Microbial modulation via cross-fostering prevents the effects of pervasive environmental stressors on microglia and social behavior, but not the dopamine system. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:2549-2562. [PMID: 37198262 PMCID: PMC10719943 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02108-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Environmental toxicant exposure, including air pollution, is increasing worldwide. However, toxicant exposures are not equitably distributed. Rather, low-income and minority communities bear the greatest burden, along with higher levels of psychosocial stress. Both air pollution and maternal stress during pregnancy have been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, but biological mechanisms and targets for therapeutic intervention remain poorly understood. We demonstrate that combined prenatal exposure to air pollution (diesel exhaust particles, DEP) and maternal stress (MS) in mice induces social behavior deficits only in male offspring, in line with the male bias in autism. These behavioral deficits are accompanied by changes in microglial morphology and gene expression as well as decreased dopamine receptor expression and dopaminergic fiber input in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Importantly, the gut-brain axis has been implicated in ASD, and both microglia and the dopamine system are sensitive to the composition of the gut microbiome. In line with this, we find that the composition of the gut microbiome and the structure of the intestinal epithelium are significantly shifted in DEP/MS-exposed males. Excitingly, both the DEP/MS-induced social deficits and microglial alterations in males are prevented by shifting the gut microbiome at birth via a cross-fostering procedure. However, while social deficits in DEP/MS males can be reversed by chemogenetic activation of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area, modulation of the gut microbiome does not impact dopamine endpoints. These findings demonstrate male-specific changes in the gut-brain axis following DEP/MS and suggest that the gut microbiome is an important modulator of both social behavior and microglia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline J Smith
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Danielle N Rendina
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Marcy A Kingsbury
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Lurie Center for Autism, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Karen E Malacon
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Dang M Nguyen
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jessica J Tran
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Lurie Center for Autism, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Benjamin A Devlin
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Ravikiran M Raju
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Madeline J Clark
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Lauren Burgett
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jason H Zhang
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Murat Cetinbas
- Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Genetics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ruslan I Sadreyev
- Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kevin Chen
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Lurie Center for Autism, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Malvika S Iyer
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Lurie Center for Autism, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Staci D Bilbo
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC, USA.
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28
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Wang C, Li H, Chen C, Yao X, Yang C, Yu Z, Ren J, Ming Y, Huang Y, Rong Y, Ma Y, Liu L. High-Fat Diet Consumption Induces Neurobehavioral Abnormalities and Neuronal Morphological Alterations Accompanied by Excessive Microglial Activation in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Adolescent Mice. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24119394. [PMID: 37298345 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24119394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The association between a high-fat diet (HFD) consumption and emotional/cognitive disorders is widely documented. One distinctive feature of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a kernel emotion- and cognition-related brain region, is its protracted adolescent maturation, which makes it highly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of environmental factors during adolescence. Disruption of the PFC structure and function is linked to emotional/cognitive disorders, especially those that emerge in late adolescence. A HFD consumption is common among adolescents, yet its potential effects on PFC-related neurobehavior in late adolescence and any related underlying mechanisms are yet to be established. In the present study, adolescent (postnatal days 28-56) male C57BL/6J mice were fed a control diet (CD) or a HFD and underwent behavioral tests in addition to Golgi staining and immunofluorescence targeting of the medial PFC (mPFC). The HFD-fed adolescent mice exhibited anxiety- and depression-like behavior and abnormal mPFC pyramidal neuronal morphology accompanied by alterations in microglial morphology indicative of a heightened state of activation and increased microglial PSD95+ inclusions signifying excessive phagocytosis of the synaptic material in the mPFC. These findings offer novel insights into the neurobehavioral effects due to adolescent HFD consumption and suggest a contributing role in microglial dysfunction and prefrontal neuroplasticity deficits for HFD-associated mood disorders in adolescents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Conghui Wang
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Hong Li
- School of Life Science and Technology, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Chen Chen
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Xiuting Yao
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Chenxi Yang
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Zhehao Yu
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Jiayi Ren
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Yue Ming
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Yi Huang
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Yi Rong
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Yu Ma
- Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
| | - Lijie Liu
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China
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29
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Towriss M, MacVicar B, Ciernia AV. Modelling Microglial Innate Immune Memory In Vitro: Understanding the Role of Aerobic Glycolysis in Innate Immune Memory. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24108967. [PMID: 37240311 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24108967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Microglia, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system, play important roles in maintaining brain homeostasis and facilitating the brain's innate immune responses. Following immune challenges microglia also retain immune memories, which can alter responses to secondary inflammatory challenges. Microglia have two main memory states, training and tolerance, which are associated with increased and attenuated expression of inflammatory cytokines, respectively. However, the mechanisms differentiating these two distinct states are not well understood. We investigated mechanisms underlying training versus tolerance memory paradigms in vitro in BV2 cells using B-cell-activating factor (BAFF) or bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a priming stimulus followed by LPS as a second stimulus. BAFF followed by LPS showed enhanced responses indicative of priming, whereas LPS followed by LPS as the second stimulus caused reduced responses suggestive of tolerance. The main difference between the BAFF versus the LPS stimulus was the induction of aerobic glycolysis by LPS. Inhibiting aerobic glycolysis during the priming stimulus using sodium oxamate prevented the establishment of the tolerized memory state. In addition, tolerized microglia were unable to induce aerobic glycolysis upon LPS restimulus. Therefore, we conclude that aerobic glycolysis triggered by the first LPS stimulus was a critical step in the induction of innate immune tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Morgan Towriss
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Brian MacVicar
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Annie Vogel Ciernia
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
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30
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Hattori Y. The multifaceted roles of embryonic microglia in the developing brain. Front Cell Neurosci 2023; 17:988952. [PMID: 37252188 PMCID: PMC10213237 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2023.988952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Microglia are the resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). Microglia originate from erythromyeloid progenitors in the yolk sac at the early embryonic stage, and these progenitors then colonize the CNS through extensive migration and proliferation during development. Microglia account for 10% of all cells in the adult brain, whereas the proportion of these cells in the embryonic brain is only 0.5-1.0%. Nevertheless, microglia in the developing brain widely move their cell body within the structure by extending filopodia; thus, they can interact with surrounding cells, such as neural lineage cells and vascular-structure-composing cells. This active microglial motility suggests that embryonic microglia play a pivotal role in brain development. Indeed, recent increasing evidence has revealed diverse microglial functions at the embryonic stage. For example, microglia control differentiation of neural stem cells, regulate the population size of neural progenitors and modulate the positioning and function of neurons. Moreover, microglia exert functions not only on neural lineage cells but also on blood vessels, such as supporting vascular formation and integrity. This review summarizes recent advances in the understanding of microglial cellular dynamics and multifaceted functions in the developing brain, with particular focus on the embryonic stage, and discusses the fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying their behavior.
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31
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Wei J, Arber C, Wray S, Hardy J, Piers TM, Pocock JM. Human myeloid progenitor glucocorticoid receptor activation causes genomic instability, type 1 IFN- response pathway activation and senescence in differentiated microglia; an early life stress model. Glia 2023; 71:1036-1056. [PMID: 36571248 DOI: 10.1002/glia.24325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Revised: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
One form of early life stress, prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids (GCs), confers a higher risk of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders in later life. Increasingly, the importance of microglia in these disorders is recognized. Studies on GCs exposure during microglial development have been limited, and there are few, if any, human studies. We established an in vitro model of ELS by continuous pre-exposure of human iPS-microglia to GCs during primitive hematopoiesis (the critical stage of iPS-microglial differentiation) and then examined how this exposure affected the microglial phenotype as they differentiated and matured to microglia, using RNA-seq analyses and functional assays. The iPS-microglia predominantly expressed glucocorticoid receptors over mineralocorticoid receptors, and in particular, the GR-α splice variant. Chronic GCs exposure during primitive hematopoiesis was able to recapitulate in vivo ELS effects. Thus, pre-exposure to prolonged GCs resulted in increased type I interferon signaling, the presence of Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase-positive (cGAS) micronuclei, cellular senescence and reduced proliferation in the matured iPS-microglia. The findings from this in vitro ELS model have ramifications for the responses of microglia in the pathogenesis of GC- mediated ELS-associated disorders such as schizophrenia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingzhang Wei
- Department of Neuroinflammation, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Charles Arber
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Selina Wray
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - John Hardy
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Thomas M Piers
- Department of Neuroinflammation, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Jennifer M Pocock
- Department of Neuroinflammation, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK
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Pang S, Luo Z, Dong W, Gao S, Chen W, Liu N, Zhang X, Gao X, Li J, Gao K, Shi X, Guan F, Zhang L, Zhang L. Integrin β1/FAK/SRC signal pathway is involved in autism spectrum disorder in Tspan7 knockout rats. Life Sci Alliance 2023; 6:e202201616. [PMID: 36625203 PMCID: PMC9768919 DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202201616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 12/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
TSPAN7 is related to various neurological disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the underlying synaptic mechanism of TSPAN7 in ASD is still unclear. Here, we showed that Tspan7 knockout rats exhibited ASD-like and ID-like behavioral phenotypes, brain structure alterations including decreased hippocampal and cortical volume, and related pathological changes including reduced hippocampal neurons number, neuronal complexity, dendritic spines, and synapse-associated proteins. Then, we found that TSPAN7 deletion interrupted the integrin β1/FAK/SRC signal pathway that was followed by the down-regulation of PSD95, SYN, and GluR1/2, which are key synaptic integrity-related proteins. Furthermore, reactivation of SRC restored the expression of synaptic integrity-related proteins in primary neurons of TSPAN7 knockout brains. Taken together, our results suggested that TSPAN7 knockout caused ASD-like and ID-like behaviors in rats and impaired neuronal synapses possibly through the down-regulation of the integrin β1/FAK/SRC signal pathway, which might be a new mechanism on regulation of synaptic proteins expression and on ASD pathogenesis by mutated TSPAN7. These findings provide novel insights into the role of TSPAN7 in psychiatric diseases and highlight integrin β1/FAK/SRC as a potential target for ASD therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuo Pang
- Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, National Health Commission of China, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
- Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zhuohui Luo
- Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, National Health Commission of China, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
- Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wei Dong
- Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, National Health Commission of China, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Shan Gao
- Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, National Health Commission of China, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wei Chen
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ning Liu
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xu Zhang
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiang Gao
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jing Li
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Kai Gao
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xudong Shi
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Feifei Guan
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Beijing Engineering Research Center for Experimental Animal Models of Human Diseases, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lianfeng Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine, National Health Commission of China, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
- Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
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33
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Krawczyk MC, Pan L, Zhang AJ, Zhang Y. Lymphocyte deficiency alters the transcriptomes of oligodendrocytes, but not astrocytes or microglia. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0279736. [PMID: 36827449 PMCID: PMC9956607 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 02/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Though the brain was long characterized as an immune-privileged organ, findings in recent years have shown extensive communications between the brain and peripheral immune cells. We now know that alterations in the peripheral immune system can affect the behavioral outputs of the central nervous system, but we do not know which brain cells are affected by the presence of peripheral immune cells. Glial cells including microglia, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are critical for the development and function of the central nervous system. In a wide range of neurological and psychiatric diseases, the glial cell state is influenced by infiltrating peripheral lymphocytes. However, it remains largely unclear whether the development of the molecular phenotypes of glial cells in the healthy brain is regulated by lymphocytes. To answer this question, we acutely purified each type of glial cell from immunodeficient Rag2-/- mice. Interestingly, we found that the transcriptomes of microglia, astrocytes, and OPCs developed normally in Rag2-/- mice without reliance on lymphocytes. In contrast, there are modest transcriptome differences between the oligodendrocytes from Rag2-/- and control mice. Furthermore, the subcellular localization of the RNA-binding protein Quaking, is altered in oligodendrocytes. These results demonstrate that the molecular attributes of glial cells develop largely without influence from lymphocytes and highlight potential interactions between lymphocytes and oligodendrocytes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mitchell C. Krawczyk
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Lin Pan
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Alice J. Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Ye Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
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34
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Bagnall-Moreau C, Spielman B, Brimberg L. Maternal brain reactive antibodies profile in autism spectrum disorder: an update. Transl Psychiatry 2023; 13:37. [PMID: 36737600 PMCID: PMC9898547 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02335-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2022] [Revised: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/24/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder with multifactorial etiologies involving both genetic and environmental factors. In the past two decades it has become clear that in utero exposure to toxins, inflammation, microbiome, and antibodies (Abs), may play a role in the etiology of ASD. Maternal brain-reactive Abs, present in 10-20% of mothers of a child with ASD, pose a potential risk to the developing brain because they can gain access to the brain during gestation, altering brain development during a critical period. Different maternal anti-brain Abs have been associated with ASD and have been suggested to bind extracellular or intracellular neuronal antigens. Clinical data from various cohorts support the increase in prevalence of such maternal brain-reactive Abs in mothers of a child with ASD compared to mothers of a typically developing child. Animal models of both non-human primates and rodents have provided compelling evidence supporting a pathogenic role of these Abs. In this review we summarize the data from clinical and animal models addressing the role of pathogenic maternal Abs in ASD. We propose that maternal brain-reactive Abs are an overlooked and promising field of research, representing a modifiable risk factor that may account for up to 20% of cases of ASD. More studies are needed to better characterize the Abs that contribute to the risk of having a child with ASD, to understand whether we can we predict such cases of ASD, and to better pinpoint the antigenic specificity of these Abs and their mechanisms of pathogenicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ciara Bagnall-Moreau
- grid.250903.d0000 0000 9566 0634Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health System, Manhasset, New York, NY USA
| | - Benjamin Spielman
- grid.250903.d0000 0000 9566 0634Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health System, Manhasset, New York, NY USA ,grid.512756.20000 0004 0370 4759Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY USA
| | - Lior Brimberg
- Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health System, Manhasset, New York, NY, USA. .,Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA.
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35
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Tu L, Talbot A, Gallagher NM, Carlson DE. Supervising the Decoder of Variational Autoencoders to Improve Scientific Utility. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL PROCESSING : A PUBLICATION OF THE IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING SOCIETY 2022; 70:5954-5966. [PMID: 36777018 PMCID: PMC9910304 DOI: 10.1109/tsp.2022.3230329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Probabilistic generative models are attractive for scientific modeling because their inferred parameters can be used to generate hypotheses and design experiments. This requires that the learned model provides an accurate representation of the input data and yields a latent space that effectively predicts outcomes relevant to the scientific question. Supervised Variational Autoencoders (SVAEs) have previously been used for this purpose, as a carefully designed decoder can be used as an interpretable generative model of the data, while the supervised objective ensures a predictive latent representation. Unfortunately, the supervised objective forces the encoder to learn a biased approximation to the generative posterior distribution, which renders the generative parameters unreliable when used in scientific models. This issue has remained undetected as reconstruction losses commonly used to evaluate model performance do not detect bias in the encoder. We address this previously-unreported issue by developing a second-order supervision framework (SOS-VAE) that updates the decoder parameters, rather than the encoder, to induce a predictive latent representation. This ensures that the encoder maintains a reliable posterior approximation and the decoder parameters can be effectively interpreted. We extend this technique to allow the user to trade-off the bias in the generative parameters for improved predictive performance, acting as an intermediate option between SVAEs and our new SOS-VAE. We also use this methodology to address missing data issues that often arise when combining recordings from multiple scientific experiments. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these developments using synthetic data and electrophysiological recordings with an emphasis on how our learned representations can be used to design scientific experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liyun Tu
- School of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, 100876, China
| | - Austin Talbot
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA
| | - Neil M. Gallagher
- Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - David E. Carlson
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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Ceasrine AM, Devlin BA, Bolton JL, Green LA, Jo YC, Huynh C, Patrick B, Washington K, Sanchez CL, Joo F, Campos-Salazar AB, Lockshin ER, Kuhn C, Murphy SK, Simmons LA, Bilbo SD. Maternal diet disrupts the placenta-brain axis in a sex-specific manner. Nat Metab 2022; 4:1732-1745. [PMID: 36443520 PMCID: PMC10507630 DOI: 10.1038/s42255-022-00693-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
High maternal weight is associated with detrimental outcomes in offspring, including increased susceptibility to neurological disorders such as anxiety, depression and communicative disorders. Despite widespread acknowledgement of sex biases in the development of these disorders, few studies have investigated potential sex-biased mechanisms underlying disorder susceptibility. Here, we show that a maternal high-fat diet causes endotoxin accumulation in fetal tissue, and subsequent perinatal inflammation contributes to sex-specific behavioural outcomes in offspring. In male offspring exposed to a maternal high-fat diet, increased macrophage Toll-like receptor 4 signalling results in excess microglial phagocytosis of serotonin (5-HT) neurons in the developing dorsal raphe nucleus, decreasing 5-HT bioavailability in the fetal and adult brains. Bulk sequencing from a large cohort of matched first-trimester human samples reveals sex-specific transcriptome-wide changes in placental and brain tissue in response to maternal triglyceride accumulation (a proxy for dietary fat content). Further, fetal brain 5-HT levels decrease as placental triglycerides increase in male mice and male human samples. These findings uncover a microglia-dependent mechanism through which maternal diet can impact offspring susceptibility for neuropsychiatric disorder development in a sex-specific manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexis M Ceasrine
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Benjamin A Devlin
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jessica L Bolton
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Lauren A Green
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Young Chan Jo
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Carolyn Huynh
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Bailey Patrick
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Kamryn Washington
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Cristina L Sanchez
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Faith Joo
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Elana R Lockshin
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Cynthia Kuhn
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Susan K Murphy
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Leigh Ann Simmons
- Department of Human Ecology, Perinatal Origins of Disparities Center, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Staci D Bilbo
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
- Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
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Bruckner JJ, Stednitz SJ, Grice MZ, Zaidan D, Massaquoi MS, Larsch J, Tallafuss A, Guillemin K, Washbourne P, Eisen JS. The microbiota promotes social behavior by modulating microglial remodeling of forebrain neurons. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001838. [PMID: 36318534 PMCID: PMC9624426 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Host-associated microbiotas guide the trajectory of developmental programs, and altered microbiota composition is linked to neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder. Recent work suggests that microbiotas modulate behavioral phenotypes associated with these disorders. We discovered that the zebrafish microbiota is required for normal social behavior and reveal a molecular pathway linking the microbiota, microglial remodeling of neural circuits, and social behavior in this experimentally tractable model vertebrate. Examining neuronal correlates of behavior, we found that the microbiota restrains neurite complexity and targeting of forebrain neurons required for normal social behavior and is necessary for localization of forebrain microglia, brain-resident phagocytes that remodel neuronal arbors. The microbiota also influences microglial molecular functions, including promoting expression of the complement signaling pathway and the synaptic remodeling factor c1q. Several distinct bacterial taxa are individually sufficient for normal microglial and neuronal phenotypes, suggesting that host neuroimmune development is sensitive to a feature common among many bacteria. Our results demonstrate that the microbiota influences zebrafish social behavior by stimulating microglial remodeling of forebrain circuits during early neurodevelopment and suggest pathways for new interventions in multiple neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph J. Bruckner
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Sarah J. Stednitz
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Max Z. Grice
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Dana Zaidan
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Michelle S. Massaquoi
- Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Johannes Larsch
- Department Genes-Circuits-Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany
| | - Alexandra Tallafuss
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Karen Guillemin
- Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
- Humans and the Microbiome Program, CIFAR, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Philip Washbourne
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Judith S. Eisen
- Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
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Sullivan O, Ciernia AV. Work hard, play hard: how sexually differentiated microglia work to shape social play and reproductive behavior. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:989011. [PMID: 36172465 PMCID: PMC9510374 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.989011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Microglia are brain-resident immune cells that play a critical role in synaptic pruning and circuit fine-tuning during development. In the adult brain, microglia actively survey their local environment and mobilize inflammatory responses to signs of damage or infection. Sex differences in microglial gene expression and function across the lifespan have been identified, which play a key role in shaping brain function and behavior. The levels of sex hormones such as androgens, estrogens, and progesterone vary in an age-dependent and sex-dependent manner. Microglia respond both directly and indirectly to changes in hormone levels, altering transcriptional gene expression, morphology, and function. Of particular interest is the microglial function in brain regions that are highly sexually differentiated in development such as the amygdala as well as the pre-optic and ventromedial hypothalamic regions. With a focus on hormone-sensitive developmental windows, this review compares male and female microglia in the embryonic, developing, and adult brain with a particular interest in the influence of sex hormones on microglial wiring of social, reproductive, and disordered behavior circuits in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivia Sullivan
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Annie Vogel Ciernia
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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