Social Isolation and Enrichment Induce Unique miRNA Signatures in the Prefrontal Cortex and Behavioral Changes in Mice

Abstract

Summary An extensive body of evidence supports the notion that exposure to an enriched/impoverished environment alters brain functions via epigenetic changes. However, how specific modifications of social environment modulate brain functions remains poorly understood. To address this issue, we investigate the molecular and behavioral consequences of briefly manipulating social settings in young and middle-aged wild-type mice. We observe that, modifications of the social context, only affect the performance in socially related tasks. Social enrichment increases sociability whereas isolation leads to the opposite effect. Our work also pointed out specific miRNA signatures associated to each social environment. These miRNA alterations are reversible and found selectively in the medial prefrontal cortex. Finally, we show that miRNA modifications linked to social enrichment or isolation might target rather different intracellular pathways. Together, these observations suggest that the prefrontal cortex may be a key brain area integrating social information via the modification of precise miRNA networks.

Environmental enrichment improves social isolation-induced memory impairment: The possible role of ITSN1-Reelin-AMPA receptor signaling pathway

“…Social isolation (SI) and environmental enrichment (EE) are housing conditions frequently used to examine psychiatric endophenotypes, recapitulating the pathology and underlying mechanism [49]. In this study, we examined whether EE reverse the SI induced memory impairment and genes associated with synaptic plasticity in Indian field mice Mus booduga.…”

“…BDNF expression in hippocampus has been implicated in both inhibitory, excitatory synaptic transmission and activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. Especially, balancing act of dorso-ventral axis of dentate gyrus (DG) regulates innate anxiety and learning [49]. Therefore, we examined immunoreactive pattern of BDNF in DG.…”

The differential effects of brief environmental enrichment following social isolation in rats

“…This spatial working memory measure depends on several structures including the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and basal forebrain. Impoverished housing conditions and social isolation lead to several plasticity-related alterations in the cortex (Gregory & Szumlinski, 2008 ; Ieraci et al, 2016 ; Popa et al, 2020 ), accompanied by an impairment in spatial working memory tasks (Gregory & Szumlinski, 2008 ; Melendez et al, 2004 ). Enrichment, in contrast, often produces the opposite effect at the neuronal and behavioral level (Sampedro-Piquero et al, 2013 ).…”

Fetal Brain-Derived Exosomal miRNAs from Maternal Blood: Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs)

“…Because individual miRNAs are involved in regulating expressions of hundreds of genes on average, they represent attractive subjects of investigation to elucidate the pathogenesis of complex disorders [ 13 ], such as FASDs. A summary of published data on some of the molecular targets of specific miRNAs and their associated neurodevelopmental functions or disorders are shown in Supplemental Data, Table S1 [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ,…”