Autophosphorylation of αCaMKII affects social interactions in mice

Abstract

The α-Ca /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (αCaMKII), a key regulator of the glutamatergic synapse, has been implicated in many psychiatric disorders characterized by social impairments. Here we tested whether autophosphorylation of αCaMKII at threonine 286, which prolongs the activity of the enzyme, affects social behaviors in mice. We observed that autophosphorylation-deficient (αCaMKII-T286A) mutant female mice showed abnormal social behaviors characterized by decreased social preference and interest in conspecifics of the same sex, as compared to their wild-type littermates. Moreover, we developed a mathematical approach to analyze social interactions in group-housed mice in the automated IntelliCages. Using this approach we observed that αCaMKII-T286A mutants show decreased levels of social interactions in a social group, as compared with WT mice. WT mice increased the frequency of close social interactions when learning about the location of the food reward. This phenomenon was absent in the mutants. Overall, our data indicates that autophosphorylation of αCaMKII affects social interactions.

PSD-95 in CA1 Area Regulates Spatial Choice Depending on Age

“…Young, adult mice were 5±1 month-old during the behavioral training and old individuals were 18±2 month-old. Only female mice were used for all experiments, as males are too aggressive for group housing in the IntelliCages (Harda et al, 2018;Śliwińska et al, 2019). All mice were housed with access to food and water ad libitum and 12:12 hour dark-light cycle, 23-24°C and 35-45% humidity.…”

“…The current study aims to identify how ageing affects behavioural strategies and synaptic processes in the dCA1 that support spatial choices. To this end, we used an IntelliCage setup as it provides close-to-ecologic conditions to investigate spatial memory and spatial choice (Kiryk et al, 2011;Śliwińska et al, 2019), non-spatial aspects of reward-driven behaviour (Radwanska and Kaczmarek, 2012), and social interactions (Kiryk et al, 2011;Harda et al, 2018). To study synaptic plasticity induced by the training, we applied ex vivo analysis of dendritic spines in the dCA1 of Thy1-GFP(M) transgenic mice (Feng et al, 2000) combined with PSD-95 protein expression analysis.…”

Contribution of PSD-95 protein to reward location memory

“…To study neuronal processes underlying learning of reward location we used IntelliCage setup. In this setup the activity and spontaneous learning of female mice leaving in a group can be measured in close to ecologic conditions and without stressful intrusion of the experimentators 34 . We used young adult Thy1-GFP(M) mice (5±1 month-old) 30 ( Fig.…”

“…1A ) to analyse co-localisation of PSD-95 protein and dendritic spines as a proxy of training-induced synaptic remodelling 35,36 . Mice were trained to find sucrose reward in one of two active cage corners 34 ( Fig. 1B.i ).…”

“…We trained mice to find sucrose reward in one of two active corners of the IntelliCages 34 . The system allowed for on-line monitoring of mice performance during the training.…”