Disorders of the Nervous System
Author: Mauro Federico Ramirez | email: mauroramirez.ar@gmail.com
Mauro Federico Ramirez 1°2°, Mariana Graciarena 1°, Amaicha Mara Depino 1°3°
1° Institute for Physiology, Molecular Biology and Neurosciences (IFIByNE-UBA-CONICET).
2° Department of Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, UBA.
3° Department of Biodiversity and Experimental Biology, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, UBA.
The Piriform Cortex (Pir) is a structure involved in the sense of smell which has been shown to regulate social behavior in rodents. Our lab has validated a pharmacological model where mice prenatally exposed to Valproic Acid (VPA) express sociability alterations, along with a higher glucose metabolism, increased cFos activity, and reduced myelinization in the Piriform Cortex. With these experiments, we aimed to understand whether the demyelination of the anterior piriform cortex may alter the sociability of adult mice. First, we performed a three-chamber social interaction and novelty test (SI+SN) to assess the basal sociability levels of naive C57BL/6 mice. The next day, through stereotaxic surgery, we administered 1µl of Lysolecithin (LPC) bilaterally in the Pir, to elicit LPC-induced demyelination. As early myelin loss has been detected 7 days after the exposure to LPC, we performed a second SI+SN test at that moment to evaluate sociability. Animals were then euthanizeded and tissue collected for further analysis. We found that LPC injection in the Pir has no effect over the sociability of mice 7 days after. We will characterize myelination to determine if demyelination of the Pir is irrelevant to social behavior or whether the effects of LPC on myelin have different temporal dynamics in the Pir, compared with previous characterizations of the prefrontal cortex.