Behavioral effects and pattern of brain c-fos mRNA induced by 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline, a component of fox feces odor in GAD67-GFP knock-in C57BL/6 mice.
Predator odors, which are non-intrusive and naturalistic stressors of high ethological relevance, were used to study the neurobiology of innate fear in rodents. The present study investigates behavioral effects and the induction of c-fos mRNA in adult male predator naive mice caused by acute exposure to 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a component of the fox feces odor. On the behavioral level, TMT potently increased unconditioned freezing and decreased non-defensive grooming behavior. With quantitative real time PCR we established a strong TMT-induced activation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) (eight-fold increase, p<0.016) and in the ventral olfactory bulb (two-fold increase, p<0.036). In contrast, no significant TMT-induced c-fos induction could be observed in the dorsal olfactory bulb or in the amygdala. Our results display robust fear responses of GAD67-GFP knock-in mice exposed to TMT and suggest that the ventral olfactory bulb and the BNST are strongly activated during the elicitation of fear through predator odor in these transgenic mice.
Janitzky
K
K
Institute of Anatomy, University of Magdeburg, D-39120 Magdeburg, Germany. k.janitzky@gmx.de
Stork
O
O
Lux
A
A
Yanagawa
Y
Y
Schwegler
H
H
Linke
R
R
D000679:Amygdala / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D005243:Feces; D005589:Foxes / Q000502:physiology; D046352:Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic; D055879:Gene Knock-In Techniques; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase / Q000235:genetics*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D006120:Grooming; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009812:Odorants; D009830:Olfactory Bulb / Q000378:metabolism; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D012686:Septal Nuclei / Q000378:metabolism; D013844:Thiazoles / Q000008:administration & dosage*
C411827:2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D013844:Thiazoles; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase; C402565:glutamate decarboxylase 1