Early structural and functional plasticity alterations in a susceptibility period of DYT1 dystonia mouse striatum
- University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
- University of Milan, Italy
- Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Italy
Abstract
The onset of abnormal movements in DYT1 dystonia is between childhood and adolescence, though it is unclear why clinical manifestations appear during this developmental period. Plasticity at corticostriatal synapses is critically involved in motor memory. In the Tor1a+/Δgag DYT1 dystonia mouse model, long-term potentiation (LTP) appeared prematurely in a critical developmental window in striatal spiny neurons (SPNs), while long-term depression (LTD) was never recorded. Analysis of dendritic spines showed an increase of both spine width and mature mushroom spines in Tor1a+/Δgag neurons, paralleled by an enhanced AMPA receptor (AMPAR) accumulation. BDNF regulates AMPAR expression during development. Accordingly, both proBDNF and BDNF levels were significantly higher in Tor1a+/Δgag mice. Consistently, antagonism of BDNF rescued synaptic plasticity deficits and AMPA currents. Our findings demonstrate that early loss of functional and structural synaptic homeostasis represents a unique endophenotypic trait during striatal maturation, promoting the appearance of clinical manifestations in mutation carriers.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (PRIN 2010-2011)
- Antonio Pisani
Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (PRIN 2010-2011)
- Fabrizio Gardoni
Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (2017)
- Antonio Pisani
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Animal breeding and handling were performed in accordance with the guidelines for the use of animals in biomedical research provided by the European Union's directives and Italian laws (2010/63EU, D.lgs. 26/2014; 406 86/609/CEE, D.Lgs 116/1992). The experimental procedures were approved by Fondazione Santa Lucia and University Tor Vergata Animal Care and Use Committees and the Italian Ministry of Health (authorization #223/2017-PR).
Copyright
© 2018, Maltese et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Early structural and functional plasticity alterations in a susceptibility period of DYT1 dystonia mouse striatum
eLife 7:e33331.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.33331
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