Evaluation of D1 and D2 Dopamine Receptor Segregation in the Developing Striatum Using BAC Transgenic Mice

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067219
• Publication Date: 2013-07-02T17:16:17Z
• Authors: Dominic Thibault; Fabien Loustalot; Guillaume M. Fortin; Marie-Josée Bourque; Louis-Éric Trudeau
• Keywords: Medium spiny neuron; Colocalization

The striatum is predominantly composed of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) that send their axons along two parallel pathways known as the direct and indirect pathways. MSNs from pathway express high levels D1 dopamine receptors, while D2 receptors. There has been much debate over extent colocalization these major receptors in adult animals. In addition, ontogeny segregation process never investigated. this paper, we crossed bacterial artificial chromosome drd1a-tdTomato drd2-GFP reporter transgenic mice to characterize models estimate D1-D2 co-expression developing well striatal primary cultures. We show already extensive at E18 degree further decreases P0 P14. Finally, also demonstrate cultured maintain very protein segregation, thus validating them a relevant vitro model.