Distinct behavioral traits and associated brain regions in mouse models for obsessive–compulsive disorder

Behavioral and Brain Functions

Shenglin Wen¹  Yuchong Luo¹  Jihui Yue¹  Xiao Chen¹  Lianyan Huang²  Boxing Li³ 

[1] Department of Psychology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, No.52 Meihua West Road, 519000, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China;Neuroscience Program, Department of Pathophysiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, 510810, Guangzhou, China;Neuroscience Program, Department of Physiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, 510810, Guangzhou, China;

关键词: Obsessive–compulsive disorder;    Behavior;    Brain area;    Neuronal activity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12993-021-00177-x

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundObsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disease with heterogeneous behavioral phenotypes, including repetitive behaviors, anxiety, and impairments in cognitive functions. The brain regions related to the behavioral heterogeneity, however, are unknown.MethodsWe systematically examined the behavioral phenotypes of three OCD mouse models induced by pharmacological reagents [RU24969, 8-hydroxy-DPAT hydrobromide (8-OH-DPAT), and 1-(3-chlorophenyl) piperazine hydrochloride-99% (MCPP)], and compared the activated brain regions in each model, respectively.ResultsWe found that the mouse models presented distinct OCD-like behavioral traits. RU24969-treated mice exhibited repetitive circling, anxiety, and impairments in recognition memory. 8-OH-DPAT-treated mice exhibited excessive spray-induced grooming as well as impairments in recognition memory. MCPP-treated mice showed only excessive self-grooming. To determine the brain regions related to these distinct behavioral traits, we examined c-fos expression to indicate the neuronal activation in the brain. Our results showed that RU24969-treated mice exhibited increased c-fos expression in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), prelimbic cortex (PrL), infralimbic cortex (IL), nucleus accumbens (NAc), hypothalamus, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, lateral division, intermediate part (BSTLD), and interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure, lateral part (IPACL), whereas in 8-OH-DPAT-treated mice showed increased c-fos expression in the ACC, PrL, IL, OFC, NAc shell, and hypothalamus. By contrast, MCPP did not induce higher c-fos expression in the cortex than control groups.ConclusionOur results indicate that different OCD mouse models exhibited distinct behavioral traits, which may be mediated by the activation of different brain regions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY