Increased c-Fos expression in the centromedial nucleus of the thalamus in metabotropic glutamate 8 receptor knockout mice following the elevated plus maze test.

Ligands for metabotropic glutamate 8 (mGlu8) receptors, such as (S)-2-amino-4-phosphonobutanoic acid and (S)-3,4-dicarboxyphenylglycine suppress CNS excitability via presynaptic regulation of glutamate release and are anticonvulsant in mice. These observations suggest that mGlu8 receptors play a role in the regulation of neuronal excitability. To further characterize the role of mGlu8 receptors in vivo, the mGlu8 receptor knockout mouse was generated. Recently, we reported that mGlu8 receptor knockout mice showed increased anxiety in the elevated plus maze (EPM). Here, the pattern of c-Fos expression was studied in mGlu8 receptor knockout and wild-type mice after exposure to the EPM test for 5 min. The present study shows that the increased anxiety-related behavior of mGlu8 receptor knockout mice in the EPM was associated with a 2.3-fold higher (P<0.05) number of c-Fos positive cells in the centromedial nucleus of the thalamus compared with wild-type mice (when prehandled mice were used). The increased neuronal activity in the centromedial nucleus of the thalamus in the mGlu8 receptor knockout mouse was also observed in a separate experiment with naive mice (no prehandling). In these naive mGlu8 receptor knockouts, c-Fos expression was significantly induced by the EPM in the centrolateral nucleus of the thalamus, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and granular cell layer of the dentate gyrus, but in naive wild-type mice c-Fos was significantly increased only in the piriform cortex. Basal c-Fos expression in the absence of EPM exposure did not differ between wild-type and mGlu8 receptor knockout mice in any brain region we examined. As the centromedial nucleus of the thalamus is important in regulating sensory information to higher brain regions, these results support the hypothesis that mGlu8 receptors are involved in the response to certain novel, aversive environments. In particular, the deletion of the mGlu8 receptor reduced the threshold of neuronal activation in stress-related brain regions such as the centromedial nucleus of the thalamus.