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New publication from Jane Hvarregaard Christensen in Neurobiology of Disease

How is the brain affected when the expression of the schizophrenia associated BRD1 gene is reduced? We already know that BRD1 deficient mice show behavioral phenotypes with broad translational relevance to psychiatric disorders, however little is known about the underlying causes.

Golgi-cox stained pyramidal neuron from mouse anterior cingulate cortex. Spines shaped like small mushrooms appear along the dendrites.

About the publication Jane Hvarregaard explains: "In this paper, we set out by profiling protein abundances in three different brain regions of BRD1 deficient mice. This revealed to us, that especially proteins influencing neuronal and dendritic spine morphology are either not present in normal amounts or they are absent from the synapse. This lead us to investigate the morphology of dendritic spines in pyramidal neurons in anterior cingulate cortex and strikingly, we found them significantly altered in size and shape. Thus, this paper suggests that the cognitive and neurotransmission deficits found in BRD1 deficient mice are caused by synaptic dysfunction."

This work resulted from collaboration with assoc. prof. Johan Palmfeldt, prof. Jens Randel Nyengaard, prof. Gregers Wegener and iPSYCH scientists.