Microglia-mediated synaptic pruning in the nucleus accumbens during adolescence: A preliminary study of the proteomic consequences and putative female-specific pruning target.

ABSTRACT: Adolescence is a period of copious neural development, particularly in the 'reward' circuitry of the brain, and reward-related behavioral development, including social development. One neurodevelopmental mechanism that appears to be common across brain regions and developmental periods is the requirement for synaptic pruning to produce mature neural communication and circuits. We published that microglia-C3-mediated synaptic pruning also occurs in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) reward region during adolescence to mediate social development in male and female rats. However, both the adolescent stage in which microglial pruning occurred, and the synaptic pruning target, were sex specific. NAc pruning occurred between early and mid-adolescence in male rats to eliminate dopamine D1 receptors (D1r

SUBMITTER: Kirkland JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10187173 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature