Aberrant Cortical Activity in Multiple GCaMP6-Expressing Transgenic Mouse Lines.

ABSTRACT: Transgenic mouse lines are invaluable tools for neuroscience but, as with any technique, care must be taken to ensure that the tool itself does not unduly affect the system under study. Here we report aberrant electrical activity, similar to interictal spikes, and accompanying fluorescence events in some genotypes of transgenic mice expressing GCaMP6 genetically encoded calcium sensors. These epileptiform events have been observed particularly, but not exclusively, in mice with Emx1-Cre and Ai93 transgenes, of either sex, across multiple laboratories. The events occur at >0.1 Hz, are very large in amplitude (>1.0 mV local field potentials, >10% df/f widefield imaging signals), and typically cover large regions of cortex. Many properties of neuronal responses and behavior seem normal despit

SUBMITTER: Steinmetz NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5604087 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature