GSE174600
Deficiency of intellectual disability-related gene Brpf1 attenuated hippocampal excitatory neurotransmission and impaired learning and memory behavior
We hypothesized that mouse Brpf1 plays critical roles in the morphology and function of hippocampal neurons, and its deficiency leads to learning and memory deficits. To test this, we performed immunofluorescence, whole-cell patch clamp, mRNA-Seq on shBrpf1 infected primary cultured hippocampal neurons to study the effect of Brpf1 knockdown on neuronal morphology, electrophysiological characteristics and gene regulation. In addition, we performed stereotactic injection into adult mouse hippocampus to knockdown Brpf1 in vivo and examined the learning and memory ability by Morris Water Maze. We found that mild knockdown of Brpf1 reduced mEPSC frequency of cultured hippocampal neurons, before any significant changes of dendritic morphology showed. We also found that hippocampal knockdown of Brpf1 reduced the learning and memory ability of mice to some extent. Finally, mRNA-Seq analyses showed that genes related to learning, memory, movement and synaptic transmission (such as C1ql1, Gpr17, Htr1d, Glra1, Cxcl10, Grin2a) were dysregulated upon Brpf1 knockdown. Our results showed that Brpf1 mild knockdown attenuated hippocampal excitatory neurotransmission and reduced learning and memory ability, which helps explain the symptoms of patients with BRPF1 mutations. Overall design: investigate the role of Brpf1 in the development and function of primary cultured hippocampal neurons and hippocampal CA1