The Ophn1 gene and the prelimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex (IMAGE)
Caption
Deleting the Ophn1 gene causes mice to respond to stressful situations with an inappropriate helpless behavior. CSHL Professor Linda Van Aelst and her lab wanted to know the exact location in the mouse brain affected by the lack of Ophn1 that leads to this helpless/depressive behavior. In this image of a mouse brain, the green color shows the prelimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex, where the researchers injected a virus to delete Ophn1. Ophn1 (red) is still present in other parts of the brain. The researchers discovered that deleting the gene in only this part of the brain caused the observed failure in stress adaptation. Human brains are organized similarly, so their findings in mice may be applicable to helping human patients who experience an inability to deal with stressful situations.
Credit
Minghui Wang/Van Aelst Lab, CSHL/2021
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