Regulation of gene expression by neuronal activity patterns

ANTONIA MARIN-BURGIN; JERÓNIMO LUKIN; SEBASTIAN A. GIUSTI; DAMIAN REFOJO; MORA OGANDO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXXII Congreso Anual SAN 2017; 2017

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN)

Activity-driven transcription is an integral part of the neuronal response to environmental stimulation and it is crucial for different molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity (LTP/ LTD), learning and memory, behavioural responses and neuronal survival. The way in which gene expression is regulated by neuronal activity patterns has been broadly studied during the last few years and different studies have shown that neuronal activity stimulates the expression of a wide variety of Immediate Early Genes (IEG). Previous approaches studied the induction of IEG by applying different protocols of chemical neuronal depolarization that are quite robust, but highly artificial and far from any physiological condition. In this work, we compared the expression of IEG by using chemical, optogenetics and electrical stimulations on primary neuronal cultures and using brain slices from mice previously injected with AAVChR2 virus. Neurons were stimulated with different patterns of activity. Both, experiments performed in slices and in cultured neurons, showed an increase in the expression of particular IEG in response to stimulation at different frequencies or to chemical stimulations. The results indicate that activity patterns can determine the temporal dynamics of activation of IEG.