Original Research Article
Lack of connexin43-mediated Bergmann glial gap junctional coupling does not affect cerebellar long-term depression, motor coordination, or eyeblink conditioning
Mika Tanaka 1, Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1, Tetsuya Tatsukawa 1, Chieko Nishioka 1, 2, Hiroshi Nishiyama 1, Martin Theis 3, Klaus Willecke 3 and Shigeyoshi Itohara 1*
1 RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), Japan
2 Brain Science and Life Technology Research Foundation, Japan
3 Institute for Genetics (present address of M.T.: Institute of Cellular Neuroscience), University of Bonn, Germany
2 Brain Science and Life Technology Research Foundation, Japan
3 Institute for Genetics (present address of M.T.: Institute of Cellular Neuroscience), University of Bonn, Germany
Bergmann glial cells are specialized astrocytes in the cerebellum. In the mature cerebellar molecular layer, Bergmann glial processes are closely associated with Purkinje cells, enclosing Purkinje cell dendritic synapses with a glial sheath. There is intensive gap junctional coupling between Bergmann glial processes, but their significance in cerebellar functions is not known. Connexin43 (Cx43), a major component of astrocytic gap junction channels, is abundantly expressed in Bergmann glial cells. To examine the role of Cx43-mediated gap junctions between Bergmann glial cells in cerebellar functions, we generated Cx43 conditional knockout mice with the S100b-Cre transgenic line (Cx43fl/fl:S100b-Cre), which exhibited a significant loss of Cx43 in the Bergmann glial cells and astrocytes in the cerebellum with a postnatal onset. The Cx43fl/fl:S100b-Cre mice had normal cerebellar architecture. Although gap junctional coupling between the Bergmann glial cells measured by spreading of microinjected Lucifer yellow was virtually abolished in Cx43fl/fl:S100b-Cre mice, electrophysiologic analysis revealed that cerebellar long-term depression could be induced and maintained normally in thier cerebellar slices. In addition, at the behavioral level, Cx43fl/fl:S100b-Cre mice had normal motor coordination in the rotarod task and normal conditioned eyelid response. Our findings suggest that Cx43-mediated gap junctional coupling between Bergmann glial cells is not necessary for the neuron-glia interactions required for cerebellum-dependent motor coordination and motor learning.
Keywords: connexin43, gap junction, Bergmann glia, astrocyte, Cre recombinase, conditional knockout, eyeblink conditioning, cerebellar long-term depression
Copyright: © 2008 Tanaka, Yamaguchi, Tatsukawa, Nishioka, Nishiyama, Theis, Willecke and Itohara. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence: Shigeyoshi Itohara, Laboratory for Behavioral Genetics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan. e-mail: sitohara@brain.riken.jp
Citation: Tanaka M, Yamaguchi K, Tatsukawa T, Nishioka C, Nishiyama H, Theis M, Willecke K and Itohara S (2008) Lack of connexin43-mediated Bergmann glial gap junctional coupling does not affect cerebellar long-term depression, motor coordination, or eyeblink conditioning. Front. Behav. Neurosci. (2008) 2:1. doi:10.3389/neuro.08.001.2008
Received: 08 February 2008; paper pending published: 26 March 2008; accepted: 10 April 2008; published online: 23 April 2008.
Edited by:
Cristina M. Alberini, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, USA
Reviewed by:
Jeansok J. Kim, University of Washington, USA
Richard F. Thomson, University of Southern California, USA
Richard F. Thomson, University of Southern California, USA
*Correspondence: Shigeyoshi Itohara, Laboratory for Behavioral Genetics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan. e-mail: sitohara@brain.riken.jp


