Postnatal Growth Defects in Mice with Constitutive Depletion of Central Serotonin
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Although the trophic actions of serotonin (5-HT) are well established, only few developmental defects have been reported in mouse strains with constitutive hyposerotonergia. We analyzed postnatal growth and cortical development in three different mutant mouse strains with constitutive reductions in central 5-HT levels. We compared two previously published mouse strains with severe (-95%) depletions of 5-HT, the tryptophan hydroxylase (Tph) 2(-/-) mouse line and VMAT2(sert-cre) mice, with a new strain, in which VMAT2 deletion is driven by Pet1 (VMAT2(pet1-cre)) in 5-HT raphe neurons leading to partial (-75%) reduction in brain 5-HT levels. We find that normal embryonic growth and postnatal growth retardation are common features of all these mouse strains. Postnatal growth retardation varied from mild to severe according to the extent of the brain 5-HT reduction and gender. Normal growth was reinstated in VMAT2(sert-cre) mice by reconstituting central 5-HT stores. Growth abnormalities could not be linked to altered food intake or temperature control. Morphological study of the cerebral cortex over postnatal development showed a delayed maturation of the upper cortical layers in the VMAT2(sert-cre) and Tph2(-/-) mice, but not in the VMAT2(pet1-cre) mice. No changes in layer-specific gene expression or morphological alterations of barrel cortex development were found. Overall, these observations sustain the notion that central 5-HT signaling is required for the preweaning growth spurt of mouse pups. Brain development appeared to be immune to severe central 5-HT depletion for its overall growth during prenatal life, whereas reduced brain growth and delayed cortical maturation development occurred during postnatal life. Reduced developmental 5-HT signaling during postnatal development might modulate the function and fine structure of neural circuits in ways that affect adult behavior.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".