Analysis of the mechanisms of the synapse formation of newborn neurons by developing mice with channelrhodopsin-2 only in newborn neuron in the dentate gyrus.

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We planned to develop a new genetically modified mice whose newborn neurons in the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus posess channelrhodopsin-2 (chr2) to analyze the mechanisms of synapse formation of newborn neurons. We are still in the middle of generating the chr2 mice we originally planned, instead we used another mice in which neurons with markers of inhibitory cells express channelrhodopsin-2, because newborn excitatory neurons in the dentate gyrus also have these markers until about three weeks after birth. We now check whether light stimulation on the dentate gyrus evoked EPSCs in pyramidal neurons in the CA3 region and inhibitory neurons in the hilus.Recent literature suggests that antidepressants improve depressed mood through increasing generation of newborn neurons in the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus, therefore we examined the effects of stress, which can cause depression, on the excitability of granule cells in the dentate gyrus. We found that forced swimming made granule neurons more excitable and now investigating the mechanisms that underlie the elevated excitability.