Huntingtin acts non cell-autonomously on hippocampal neurogenesis and controls anxiety-related behaviors in adult mouse

PLoS One. 2013 Sep 3;8(9):e73902. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073902. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Huntington's disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, characterized by motor defects and psychiatric symptoms, including mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. HD is caused by an abnormal polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion in the huntingtin (HTT) protein. The development and analysis of various mouse models that express pathogenic polyQ-HTT revealed a link between mutant HTT and the development of anxio-depressive behaviors and various hippocampal neurogenesis defects. However, it is unclear whether such phenotype is linked to alteration of HTT wild-type function in adults. Here, we report the analysis of a new mouse model in which HTT is inducibly deleted from adult mature cortical and hippocampal neurons using the CreER(T2)/Lox system. These mice present defects in both the survival and the dendritic arborization of hippocampal newborn neurons. Our data suggest that these non-cell autonomous effects are linked to defects in both BDNF transport and release upon HTT silencing in hippocampal neurons, and in BDNF/TrkB signaling. The controlled deletion of HTT also had anxiogenic-like effects. Our results implicate endogenous wild-type HTT in adult hippocampal neurogenesis and in the control of mood disorders.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anxiety / physiopathology*
  • Behavior, Animal*
  • Hippocampus / physiology*
  • Huntingtin Protein
  • Mice
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / genetics
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / physiology*
  • Neurogenesis / physiology*
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics
  • Nuclear Proteins / physiology*
  • Tamoxifen / administration & dosage

Substances

  • Htt protein, mouse
  • Huntingtin Protein
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Tamoxifen

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR-08-MNP-039, FS), Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM, équipe labellisée) (FS), CNRS, INSERM and the Institut Curie (FS). SO was supported by the French Minister of Research. FS and SH are INSERM investigators; AMG, DJD. and PP are respectively professors and assistant professors at Université Paris-Sud. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.