Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Absence of testes at puberty impacts functional development of nigrostriatal but not mesoaccumbal dopamine terminals in a wild-derived mouse

doi: 10.1101/2025.05.16.654596

Figure Lengend Snippet: (a) Male Mus spicilegus were gonadectomized (GDX) after weaning at P25-28 to remove gonads before onset of puberty. Data from a separate cohort of male M. spicilegus (n=4 cages) show an increase in average fecal testosterone from P20-60 in this species. Error bars represent the SEM. Dopamine imaging in acute brain slices from sham / GDX mice was performed during late adolescence or cusp of early adulthood (P60-P70) in this species reared on this 12h:12h light cycle. (b) Schematic of imaging experiments in brain slices. Acute brain slices were prepared and labeled with dopamine nanosensors. Electrically evoked dopamine release was monitored in near-infrared with a custom-built microscope. (c) Schematic of data analysis for nanosensor fluorescence response in brain slices. Three metrics of dopamine release (density of active ROIs as fraction of total ROIs, peak ΔF/F within active ROIs, and τ off ) were extracted from the nIRCat fluorescence response and used for comparison between groups.

Article Snippet: Fluorescence spectra were collected with an inverted Zeiss microscope (20x objective lens, Axio Observer D1) coupled to a spectrometer (SCT 320, Princeton Instruments) and a liquid nitrogen-cooled InGaAs detector (PyLoN-IR, Princeton Instruments).

Techniques: Imaging, Labeling, Microscopy, Fluorescence, Comparison