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Hyper-response to Novelty Increases c-Fos Expression in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex in a Rat Model of Schizophrenia

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 13 January 2018

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Abstract

Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder that may have a neurodevelopmental origin. For this reason, animal models based on neonatal insults or manipulations have been extensively used to demonstrate schizophrenia-related behaviors. Among those, the neonatal ventral hippocampus lesion (nVHL) is largely used as a model of schizophrenia-related behavior as it mimics behavioral and neurochemical abnormalities often seen in schizophrenic patients including hyperlocomotion in a novel environment. To investigate the neuroanatomical basis of coding novelty in the nVHL rat, we assessed the behavioral locomotor activity paradigm in a novel environment and measured expression of c-Fos, a marker of neural activation, in brain regions involved in the process of coding novelty or locomotion. Upon reaching adulthood, nVHL rats showed hyperlocomotion in the novel environment paradigm. Moreover, in nVHL rats the expression of c-Fos was greater in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus compared to sham rats. Whereas similar expression of c-Fos was observed in the basolateral amygdala, nucleus accumbens and dentate gyrus region of  hippocampus of nVHL and sham rats. These results suggest that the nVHL disrupts the neural activity in the PFC and CA1 region of hippocampus in the process of coding novelty in the rat.

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  • 13 January 2018

    The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The spelling of the author Tommaso Ianniti was incorrect and has been corrected as Tommaso Iannitti. The original article has been corrected.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from Vicerrectoría de Investigación y Estudios de Posgrado (VIEP), Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) (No. 98-FLAG-2017) and Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) México (No. 252808) to GF. JCMM would like to thank the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) for return home grant. We are grateful to Dr. Francisco Ramos Collazo for his help and suggestions related to animal care. TM and HTB acknowledge the CONACYT for studentships. RAVR, IMM, PAA, GF and JCMM thank the National Research System of Mexico for membership. We thank Mira Thakur for proofreading and editing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación en Reproducción Animal, CINVESTAV-UAT, AP 62, 90000, Tlaxcala, Mexico

    Tomas Monfil & Julio Cesar Morales-Medina

  2. Departamento de Fisiología, Biofísica y Neurociencias, CINVESTAV, 07360, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

    Tomas Monfil

  3. Lab. Neuropsiquiatría, Instituto de Fisiología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 14 Sur 6301, CP 72570, Puebla, Mexico

    Rubén Antonio Vázquez Roque, Israel Camacho-Abrego, Hiram Tendilla-Beltran & Gonzalo Flores

  4. KWS BioTest, Marine View Office Park, Portishead, Somerset, BS20 7AW, UK

    Tommaso Iannitti

  5. Departamento de Bioquímica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

    Ivan Meneses-Morales

  6. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 72570, Puebla, Mexico

    Patricia Aguilar-Alonso

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  1. Tomas Monfil
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Correspondence to Gonzalo Flores or Julio Cesar Morales-Medina.

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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.

Additional information

The original version of this article was revised. The last name of the author Tommaso Ianniti had a spell error which has been corrected.

A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-018-2468-0.

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Monfil, T., Vázquez Roque, R.A., Camacho-Abrego, I. et al. Hyper-response to Novelty Increases c-Fos Expression in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex in a Rat Model of Schizophrenia. Neurochem Res 43, 441–448 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-017-2439-x

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