1
|
Adinolfi A, Di Sante G, Rivignani Vaccari L, Tredicine M, Ria F, Bonvissuto D, Corvino V, Sette C, Geloso MC. Regionally restricted modulation of Sam68 expression and Arhgef9 alternative splicing in the hippocampus of a murine model of multiple sclerosis. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 15:1073627. [PMID: 36710925 PMCID: PMC9878567 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2022.1073627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) and its preclinical models are characterized by marked changes in neuroplasticity, including excitatory/inhibitory imbalance and synaptic dysfunction that are believed to underlie the progressive cognitive impairment (CI), which represents a significant clinical hallmark of the disease. In this study, we investigated several parameters of neuroplasticity in the hippocampus of the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) SJL/J mouse model, characterized by rostral inflammatory and demyelinating lesions similar to Relapsing-Remitting MS. By combining morphological and molecular analyses, we found that the hippocampus undergoes extensive inflammation in EAE-mice, more pronounced in the CA3 and dentate gyrus (DG) subfields than in the CA1, associated with changes in GABAergic circuitry, as indicated by the increased expression of the interneuron marker Parvalbumin selectively in CA3. By laser-microdissection, we investigated the impact of EAE on the alternative splicing of Arhgef9, a gene encoding a post-synaptic protein playing an essential role in GABAergic synapses and whose mutations have been related to CI and epilepsy. Our results indicate that EAE induces a specific increase in inclusion of the alternative exon 11a only in the CA3 and DG subfields, in line with the higher local levels of inflammation. Consistently, we found a region-specific downregulation of Sam68, a splicing-factor that represses this splicing event. Collectively, our findings confirm a regionalized distribution of inflammation in the hippocampus of EAE-mice. Moreover, since neuronal circuit rearrangement and dynamic remodeling of structural components of the synapse are key processes that contribute to neuroplasticity, our study suggests potential new molecular players involved in EAE-induced hippocampal dysfunction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Annalisa Adinolfi
- Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Gabriele Di Sante
- Section of Human, Clinic and Forensic Anatomy, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Luca Rivignani Vaccari
- Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Maria Tredicine
- Section of General Pathology, Department of Translational Medicine and Surgery, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Ria
- Section of General Pathology, Department of Translational Medicine and Surgery, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Davide Bonvissuto
- Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Valentina Corvino
- Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Claudio Sette
- Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy,GSTEP-Organoids Core Facility, Fondazione Policlinico Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy,*Correspondence: Claudio Sette, ✉
| | - Maria Concetta Geloso
- Section of Human Anatomy, Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy,Maria Concetta Geloso, ✉
| |
Collapse
|