Journal: Molecular Psychiatry
Article Title: Regulation of stress susceptibility by chromatin-binding protein PHF6 in the pituitary intermediate lobe
doi: 10.1038/s41380-025-03300-w
Figure Lengend Snippet: a Experimental design for IL PHF6 cell activation and assessment of anxiety-like behaviors. b Left: Representative images showing hM3D-mChery (or mCherry) expression in the IL of Phf6-CreER mice, co-stained with c-Fos (green). Right: Quantification revealed significantly higher c-Fos expression in hM3D-expressing IL PHF6 cells compared to mCherry controls (mCherry, n = 3; hM3D, n = 3, **** p < 0.0001, unpaired Student’s t -test). DAPI is shown in blue. Scale bars, 50 μm. c Representative locomotor trajectories and quantification of time spent in the center area of the OF test. Activation of IL PHF6 cells significantly decreased the time spent in the center area of the OF test (mCherry-saline, n = 8; hM3D-saline, n = 8; mCherry-CNO, n = 10; hM3D-CNO, n = 8; * p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test). d Representative locomotor trajectories and time spent in the open arms of the EPM test. Activation of IL PHF6 cells significantly decreased the time spent in the open arms of the EPM test (mCherry-saline, n = 8; hM3D-saline, n = 8; mCherry-CNO, n = 10; hM3D-CNO, n = 8; * p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test). e Quantification of the latency to feed in the NSF test. Activation of IL PHF6 cells significantly increased the latency to feed in the NSF test (mCherry-saline, n = 8; hM3D-saline, n = 8; mCherry-CNO, n = 10; hM3D-CNO, n = 8; * p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test). f Experimental design for assessing hormone release following IL PHF6 cell activation. g-i Plasma quantification showed significantly elevated α-MSH ( g ), β-endorphin ( h ), and corticosterone ( i ) levels in hM3D-expressing mice compared to controls. (mCherry, n = 10; hM3D, n = 8, * p < 0.05, unpaired Student’s t -test). j Schematic diagram of retrograde monosynaptic tracing using rabies virus in Phf6-CreER mice. Starter cells are labeled in yellow, as indicated by the white arrowheads. Scale bars, 100 μm. k Rabies-labeled upstream inputs to IL PHF6 cells. Scale bars, 100 μm. l Percentage of RV-traced tdTomato-positive neurons located in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), the periventricular zone (Pe), and the arcuate nucleus (ARC) ( n = 3). m Representative images of RV-traced tdTomato-positive neurons co-expressing CRH (green) in the PVN. Scale bars, 100 μm (low magnification) and 10 μm (high magnification). Data are presented as mean ± SEM.
Article Snippet: For chemogenetic and circuit tracing experiments, Phf6-CreER mice (C57BL/6J background, generated by Cyagen Biosciences) were used.
Techniques: Activation Assay, Expressing, Staining, Saline, Clinical Proteomics, Virus, Labeling