The role of nitric oxide synthase in cortical plasticity is sex specific.
The role of nitric oxide synthase in cortical plasticity is sex specific.
复制标题
一氧化氮合酶在皮质可塑性中的作用是性别特异性的。
DOI:
10.1523/jneurosci.3189-12.2012
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发表时间:
2012-10-24
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Fox K
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Dachtler J;Hardingham NR;Fox K
Nitric oxide synthase-1 (NOS1) is involved in several forms of plasticity including hippocampal-dependent learning and memory, experience-dependent plasticity in the barrel cortex and LTP in the hippocampus and neocortex. NOS1 also contributes to ischaemic damage during stroke and has a stronger deleterious effect in males than females. We therefore investigated whether NOS1’s role in plasticity might also be sex specific. We tested LTP in the layer (L)IV to II/III pathway between barrel-columns and experience-dependent plasticity in the barrel cortex of αNOS1 knockout mice and their wild-type littermates. We found that LTP was absent in male αNOS1 knockout mice but not in females and that the residual LTP in females was not NO-dependent. We also found that experience-dependent potentiation due to single whisker experience was significantly reduced in male αNOS1 knockouts but unaffected in females. The αNOS1 knockout had a small effect on development of the barrels, which were reduced in size by 20% compared to wild-types but this effect was not sex specific. We therefore conclude that neocortical plasticity mechanisms differ between males and females at the synaptic level, either in their basic plasticity induction pathways or in their ability to compensate for loss of αNOS1.