NMDA receptor antagonist induced c-Fos expression in the medial entorhinal cortex during postnatal development.
Frontiers in neural circuits January 1, 2025 Feng Liang, Hong Wang, Robert Konrad Naumann 1 citation
Injecting the NMDAR antagonist MK-801 into mice produced a 10-fold higher density of c-Fos—a marker of neuronal activity—in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) compared to other forebrain regions. c-Fos was concentrated in layer 3 of the dorsal MEC. Parvalbumin (PV)-positive inhibitory neurons showed a spatial correlation with c-Fos: high and medium PV neurons correlated positively with c-Fos density, while low PV neurons correlated negatively. During postnatal development, PV expression appeared on day 12, two days before c-Fos emerged on day 16. The findings suggest that specific subtypes of inhibitory and excitatory neurons in local circuits are critical for sustained neuronal responses to NMDAR antagonists, and that dense PV input may be necessary for inducing c-Fos in MEC principal neurons.