Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017 Oct;42(11):2242-2251. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.129. Epub 2017 Jun 20.
The functional role of genetic variants in glia in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders remains poorly studied. Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), a genetic risk factor implicated in major mental disorders, has been implicated in regulation of astrocyte functions. As both astrocytes and DISC1 influence adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus, we hypothesized that selective expression of dominant-negative C-terminus-truncated human DISC1 (mutant DISC1) in astrocytes would affect adult hippocampal neurogenesis and hippocampus-dependent behaviors. A series of behavioral tests were performed in mice with or without expression of mutant DISC1 in astrocytes during late postnatal development. In conjunction with behavioral tests, we evaluated adult neurogenesis, including neural progenitor proliferation and dendrite development of newborn neurons in the DG. The ameliorative effects of D-serine on mutant DISC1-associated behaviors and abnormal adult neurogenesis were also examined. Expression of mutant DISC1 in astrocytes decreased neural progenitor proliferation and dendrite growth of newborn neurons, and produced elevated anxiety, attenuated social behaviors, and impaired hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. Chronic treatment with D-serine ameliorated the behavioral alterations and rescued abnormal adult neurogenesis in mutant DISC1 mice. Our findings suggest that psychiatric genetic risk factors expressed in astrocytes could affect adult hippocampal neurogenesis and contribute to aspects of psychiatric disease through abnormal production of D-serine.
胶质细胞中遗传变异的功能作用在精神疾病发病机制中的研究仍不完善。精神分裂症相关蛋白 1(DISC1)是一种与主要精神疾病相关的遗传风险因素,其参与了星形胶质细胞功能的调节。由于星形胶质细胞和 DISC1 均影响海马齿状回(DG)的成年神经发生,我们假设在星形胶质细胞中选择性表达显性负性 C 端截断的人 DISC1(突变 DISC1)会影响成年海马神经发生和海马依赖的行为。在晚发性发育过程中,在星形胶质细胞中表达突变 DISC1 的小鼠进行了一系列行为测试。结合行为测试,我们评估了成年神经发生,包括 DG 中新生神经元的神经祖细胞增殖和树突发育。还检查了 D-丝氨酸对突变 DISC1 相关行为和异常成年神经发生的改善作用。星形胶质细胞中突变 DISC1 的表达减少了神经祖细胞的增殖和新生神经元的树突生长,并导致焦虑增加、社交行为减弱以及海马依赖的学习和记忆受损。慢性 D-丝氨酸治疗改善了突变 DISC1 小鼠的行为改变,并挽救了其异常的成年神经发生。我们的研究结果表明,星形胶质细胞中表达的精神疾病遗传风险因素可能会影响成年海马神经发生,并通过 D-丝氨酸的异常产生而导致精神疾病的某些方面。