Visual cortex is rescued from the effects of dark rearing by overexpression of BDNF

Gianfranceschi, L., Siciliano, R., Walls, J., Morales, B., Kirkwood, A., Huang, Z. J., Tonegawa, S., Maffei, L. (October 2003) Visual cortex is rescued from the effects of dark rearing by overexpression of BDNF. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100 (21). pp. 12486-12491. ISSN 0027-8424

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URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14514885
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1934836100

Abstract

Visual deprivation such as dark rearing (DR) prolongs the critical period for ocular dominance plasticity and retards the maturation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic inhibition in visual cortex. The molecular signals that mediate the effects of DR on the development of visual cortex are not well defined. To test the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), we examined the effects of DR in transgenic mice in which BDNF expression in visual cortex was uncoupled from visual experience and remained elevated during DR. In dark-reared transgenic mice, visual acuity, receptive field size of visual cortical neurons, critical period for ocular dominance plasticity, and intracortical inhibition were indistinguishable from those observed in light-reared mice. Therefore, BDNF overexpression is sufficient for the development of aspects of visual cortex in the absence of visual experience. These results suggest that reduced BDNF expression contributes to retarded maturation of GABAergic inhibition and delayed development of visual cortex during visual deprivation.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR nerve growth factor EXPERIENCE-DEPENDENT PLASTICITY experience dependent plasticity MONKEYS monkeys MACACA-NEMESTRINA Macaca nemestrina MONOCULAR DEPRIVATION nomocular deprivation POSTNATAL-DEVELOPMENT post-natal development postnatal NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR neurotrophic factor CRITICAL-PERIOD critical period MESSENGER-RNA Messenger RNA RECEPTIVE-FIELDS receptive fields RAT NEOCORTEX Rat neocortex
Subjects: bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > small molecules > GABAergic
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > genes, structure and function > gene expression
neurobiology
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > visual cortex
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Huang lab
Depositing User: CSHL Librarian
Date: October 2003
Date Deposited: 10 Apr 2012 17:05
Last Modified: 10 Sep 2019 18:35
PMCID: PMC218784
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25795

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