Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Dec 3;19(11):pyw065.
doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyw065. Print 2016 Nov.

Loss of Parvalbumin in the Hippocampus of MAM Schizophrenia Model Rats Is Attenuated by Peripubertal Diazepam

Yijuan Du  1 , Anthony A Grace  2
Affiliations

Loss of Parvalbumin in the Hippocampus of MAM Schizophrenia Model Rats Is Attenuated by Peripubertal Diazepam

Yijuan Du et al. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. .

Abstract

Background: Loss of parvalbumin interneurons in the hippocampus is a robust finding in schizophrenia brains. Rats exposed during embryonic day 17 to methylazoxymethanol acetate exhibit characteristics consistent with an animal model of schizophrenia, including decreased parvalbumin interneurons in the ventral hippocampus. We reported previously that peripubertal administration of diazepam prevented the emergence of pathophysiology in adult methylazoxymethanol acetate rats.

Methods: We used an unbiased stereological method to examine the impact of peripubertal diazepam treatment on parvalbumin interneuron number in the ventral subiculum, dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the basolateral amygdala.

Results: Methylazoxymethanol acetate rats with peripubertal diazepam showed significantly more parvalbumin interneurons (3355±173 in the ventral subiculum, 1211±76 in the dentate gyrus) than methylazoxymethanol acetate without diazepam (2375±109 and 824±54, respectively). No change was found in the basolateral amygdala.

Conclusions: Peripubertal diazepam attenuated the decrease of parvalbumin in the ventral hippocampus of methylazoxymethanol acetate rats.

Keywords: animal model; diazepam; parvalbumin interneuron; schizophrenia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The loss of parvalbumin interneurons in methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) rats was attenuated by peripubertal diazepam administration. (a) Images of ventral subiculum (vSub) from saline (Sal), MAM, and MAM: diazepam (DZ) animals; scale bar = 100 μm. Boundaries of the counting area, pyramidal cell layer of vSub, are delineated by dotted lines. (b) Example image of parvalbumin interneurons. Arrows point to parvalbumin cells in focus; scale bar = 10 μm. (c) MAM rats exhibited a significantly lower number of parvalbumin interneurons in the vSub; however, MAM rats with peripubertal administration of diazepam (MAM:DZ) showed a significantly higher number of parvalbumin interneurons in the vSub compared with MAM:Veh rats, although the number is still significantly lower compared with Sal:Veh and Sal:DZ rats. *P<. 05; ***P<. 001. (d) In the hilus of the ventral DG, MAM:Veh rats showed a significantly lower number of parvalbmin interneurons than Sal:Veh, which was significantly attenuated in the MAM:DZ rats. Sal:DZ rats showed a significantly lower PV number than Sal:Veh rats. (e) The number of parvalbumin interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) did not differ significantly between Sal and MAM rats.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bayer SA. (1980) Development of the hippocampus region in the rat. I. Neurogenesis examined with 3H-thymidine autoradiography. J Comp Neurol 190:87–114. - PubMed
    1. Benes FM. (2010) Amygdalocortical circuitry in schizophrenia: from circuits to molecules. Neuropsychopharmacology 35:239–257. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berdel B, Moryś J, Maciejewska B. (1997) Neuronal changes in the basolateral complex during development of the amygdala of the rat. Int J Dev Neurosci 15:755–765. - PubMed
    1. Berretta S, Gisabella B, Benes FM. (2009) A rodent model of schizophrenia derived from postmortem studies. Behav Brain Res 204:363–368. - PubMed
    1. Cabungcal JH, Counotte DS, Lewis EM, Tejeda HA, Piantadosi P, Pollock C, Calhoon GG, Sullivan EM, Presgraves E, Kil J, Hong LE, Cuenod M, Do KQ, O’Donnell P. (2014) Juvenile antioxidant treatment prevents adult deficits in a developmental model of schizophrenia. Neuron 83:1073–1084. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources