T€ Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Overexpression Induces Precocious Critical Period in Mouse Visual Cortex
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The Journal of Neuroscience, 1999, Vol. 19 RC40 1of5 Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Overexpression Induces Precocious Critical Period in Mouse Visual Cortex Jessica L. Hanover,1 Z. Josh Huang,2 Susumu Tonegawa,2,3 and Michael P. Stryker1 1Neuroscience Graduate Program and Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, California, 94143, and 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Learning and Memory, Center for Cancer Research and Department of Biology, and 3Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139 Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a candidate mole- found that unlike the infusion experiments, excess BDNF ex- cule for regulating activity-dependent synaptic plasticity on the pressed in mouse visual cortex did not block ocular dominance grounds of its expression pattern in developing visual cortex plasticity. Instead, single neurons in V1 of the BDNF transgenic and that of its receptor, trkB (Castre´ n et al., 1992; Bozzi et al., mice were as susceptible to the effects of monocular depriva- 1995; Schoups et al., 1995; Cabelli et al., 1996), as well as the tion (MD) as neurons in wild-type mice, but only during a modulation of these patterns by activity (Castre´ n et al., 1992; precocious critical period. At a time when V1 in the wild-type Bozzi et al., 1995; Schoups et al., 1995). Infusing trkB ligands or mouse responded maximally toa4dMDwith a reduction in its their neutralizing agents, the trkB-IgG fusion proteins, into vi- response to deprived eye visual stimulation, the transgenic sual cortex alters the development and plasticity of ocular mouse V1 had already passed the peak of its precocious critical dominance columns (Cabelli et al., 1995; Riddle et al., 1995; period and no longer responded maximally. This finding sug- Galuske et al., 1996; Gillespie et al., 1996; Cabelli et al., 1997). gests a role for BDNF in promoting the postnatal maturation of To test further the physiological role of BDNF, we studied a cortical circuitry. transgenic mouse that expresses elevated levels of BDNF in Key words: BDNF; visual cortex; critical period; neurotrophin; primary visual cortex (V1) postnatally (Huang et al., 1999). We trkB; ocular dominance; plasticity; transgenic mouse Several experiments implicate brain-derived neurotrophic factor known to affect inhibitory circuitry in cortical neurons (Ruther- (BDNF) in models of neuronal plasticity in vitro, including the ford et al., 1997). enhancement of cortical cell dendritic morphology (McAllister et The role of neurotrophins in the development and plasticity of al., 1995), the enhancement of synaptic transmission (Kang and rodent visual cortex is well established. Exogenous nerve growth Schuman, 1995; Carmignoto et al., 1997; Rutherford et al., 1998), factor (NGF) in rats can block ocular dominance plasticity or and the induction and maintenance of long-term potentiation in substitute for visual experience, and antibodies to NGF block hippocampus (Korte et al., 1995; Figurov et al., 1996; Patterson et normal development of cortical visual responses despite normal al., 1996). Results from experiments in vivo are also consistent visual experience (Maffei et al., 1992; Berardi et al., 1994; Fagio- with the idea that competition for limiting quantities of BDNF or lini and Stryker, 1996; Fagiolini et al., 1997). In most earlier other endogenous trkB ligands regulates synaptic plasticity during experiments, exogenous BDNF has been applied pharmacologi- development of visual cortex by acting as the “reward” for the cally in high concentration. In transgenic mice in which a BDNF more active inputs that are more successful in driving the transgene was linked to the calcium/calmodulin-dependent ki- postsynaptic partners. In carnivores, providing excess trkB ligand nase II a (aCaMKII) promoter, the levels of BDNF in cortex blocks the further segregation of geniculocortical inputs into were only moderately elevated in the cells that normally express nascent ocular dominance columns and, perhaps by rewarding BDNF (Huang et al., 1999). Abnormalities in such animals could deprived and nondeprived inputs indiscriminately, prevents the illuminate the physiological roles played by BDNF in visual usual loss of responsiveness of cortical neurons to the deprived cortical development. eye after monocular deprivation (MD) (Cabelli et al., 1995, 1996; As in wild-type animals, neocortical levels of BDNF in BDNF- Galuske et al., 1996; Gillespie et al., 1996). Blocking endogenous trkB ligands also alters cortical development (Cabelli et al., 1997). In addition to its effects on excitatory neurons, BDNF is also This article is published in The Journal of Neuroscience, Rapid Communications Section, which publishes brief, peer- reviewed papers online, not in print. Rapid Communications Received Aug. 10, 1999; revised Sept. 15, 1999; accepted Sept. 20, 1999. are posted online approximately one month earlier than they This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants NS16033 (M.P.S.) and NS32925 (S.T.), the Damon Runyon–Walter Winchell Foundation (to would appear if printed. They are listed in the Table of Z.J.H.) and a National Eye Institute vision training grant (J.L.H.). We thank A. Contents of the next open issue of JNeurosci. Cite this article Antonini, N. Priebe, and M. Silver for helpful discussions. as: JNeurosci, 1999, 19:RC40 (1–5). The publication date is Correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Michael P. Stryker, Department of Physiology, Room S-762, 513 Parnassus Avenue, University of California, San the date of posting online at www.jneurosci.org. Francisco, CA 94143-0444. E-mail: [email protected]. Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/190001-05$05.00/0 http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/3687 2of5 J. Neurosci., 1999, Vol. 19 Hanover et al. • Critical Period for Cortex in BDNF Overexpresser overexpressing transgenic mice increased during postnatal devel- opment. BDNF mRNA expression in the cerebral cortex of the transgenic mice was accelerated by postnatal day 2 (P2), at which time the wild-type littermates showed very low levels of endoge- nous BDNF. By 3 weeks of age, total BDNF mRNA levels in the transgenic neocortex were significantly higher than those in wild- type animals of 5 weeks of age. At 5 weeks, BDNF mRNA levels in transgenic mouse neocortex were three times normal, and in adult transgenic mice, they were five times normal (Huang et al., 1999). MATERIALS AND METHODS Generation of mutant mice. Mice were generated as described previously (Huang et al., 1999). In the present study, experiments were performed on the A9 line of mice. In these animals, the expression pattern of the transgene was mainly restricted to forebrain, including the neocortex and hippocampus. Within the cortex, the expression of the transgene had the laminar pattern of the endogenous genes for BDNF or aCaMKII. In the visual cortex of both transgenic and wild-type animals, highest levels of BDNF expression were in layers II/III and V/VI; however, in transgenic animals, BDNF expression levels were substantially higher in all cortical layers. These higher levels of BDNF expression resulted from increase in the number of neurons expressing BDNF as well as an increase in the intensity of BDNF immunoreactivity in the neurons. In addition, the transgene appeared not to be expressed by neurons with inhibitory markers (Huang et al., 1999). Monocular deprivation. Lid sutures were performed as described (Gor- don and Stryker, 1996), except that anesthesia was produced using 2.5% isoflurane (Abbott, North Chicago, IL) in oxygen. Animals were checked daily to make sure that the sutured eye remained closed. If any sutures appeared loose, they were replaced under anesthesia. In the cases in which holes were apparent and the eye could have been exposed, the animals were removed from the study. Electrophysiology. Mice were prepared blind to genotype under Nem- butal (50 mg/kg; Abbott) and chlorprothixene (0.2 mg; Sigma, St. Louis, MO) anesthesia using standard protocol (Gordon and Stryker, 1996). In each animal, single cells separated by at least 50 mm were recorded from multiple penetration sites within the V1 binocular zone (BZ) contralat- eral to the deprived eye using extracellular tungsten microelectrodes. All recordings were contralateral to the deprived eye. Receptive fields were plotted on a tangent screen with a hand-held projection lamp or computer-generated stimuli. Only cells with receptive fields within the central 25° of the visual hemifield were included in this study. The cells were assigned to an ocular dominance group according to the classifica- tion scheme of Hubel and Wiesel (1962). Cells were assigned to group 1 if they responded only to stimuli presented to the contralateral (de- prived) eye and 7 if they responded only to stimuli presented to the ipsilateral (nondeprived) eye. Cells responding equally well to stimuli presented to each eye individually were assigned to group 4, and groups 2 or 3 and 5 or 6 indicated cells responding better to stimuli presented to the contralateral and ipsilateral eyes, respectively. Ocular dominance histograms such as in Figure 2a–h show percent of cells as a function of Figure 1. Visually evoked response properties of neurons in Tg and WT ocular dominance group. The contralateral bias index (CBI) was then adult mouse V1. a, Raster plot of single-unit responses from a neuron in calculated, a weighted average of the bias for one eye or the other, with the Tg mouse V1 BZ in response to computer-generated, moving, ori- 5 2 1 2 1 2 the following formula: CBI [(n1 n7) (2/3)(n2 n6) (1/3)(n3 ented light bars (0–315°) as well as to no stimulus [spontaneous (Spont)]. 1 5 5 n5) N]/2N, where n total number of cells, and nx number of cells Stimuli consisted of three repetitions at each of eight orientations. Spikes with ocular dominance scores equal to x. Each neuron was also assigned were continuously recorded before, during, and after the stimulus moved a habituation score on a scale of 0 to 3; a score of 0 indicated a neuron through the receptive field (indicated with an oval) of the neuron.