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Projekt Druckansicht

Gen-Umwelt Interaktionen und Störungen der postnatalen Hirnentwicklung und Neurogenese in Mausmodellen für Schizophrenie

Antragsteller Professor Dr. Peter Gass
Fachliche Zuordnung Biologische Psychiatrie
Förderung Förderung von 2010 bis 2015
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 181496197
 
Erstellungsjahr 2015

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Both genetic and environmental factors, as well as their interaction (GxE), have been proposed as being implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia by disturbing normal brain development. In the present project we investigated the role of components of the glutamate system and of one main environmental risk factor for schizophrenia (perinatal hypoxia) in developmental mouse models of the disease. We identified in pharmacological models of NMDA receptor hypofunction cumulative effects of chronic stress on cortical neurotoxicity, as well as differential roles of the subunits of this receptor in disinhibition of cortical networks. We generated mice with inducible ablation of regular AMPA receptors during late adolescence and characterized schizophrenia-like abnormalities in this model, i.e. hyperlocomotion, sensorimotor gating and working memory deficits. We also analyzed long-term consequences of exposure to chronic perinatal hypoxia and found no behavioral alterations associated with psychiatric disorders. These results suggest a high regenerative capacity of the perinatal brain upon hypoxia and the need of a second genetic susceptibility factor for the protracted development of abnormalities associated with schizophrenia. Altogether these results may contribute to better understanding of the contribution of several genetic and environmental risk factors to the later development of schizophrenia.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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