Modulation of CREB in the Dorsal Lateral Geniculate Nucleus of Dark-Reared Mice
Figure 1
Dark rearing (DR) upregulates total CREB levels in the mouse dLGN. (a) Schematic showing the different DR conditions. The timeline depicts postnatal age in relation to the periods of DR (dark gray) and patterned visual experience (light gray). CDR and DDR; chronic and delayed DR; CDR + L and DDR + L; chronic and delayed DR followed by 2 hours of normal visual experience. Dotted line indicates the time of natural eye opening. For all conditions, tissue was harvested at postnatal day (P) 27. (b) Representative fluorescent immunoblot showing CREB (red) and pCREB (green) protein levels. GAPDH (green) was used as a loading control. CREB levels were higher in CDR and DDR compared to age-matched controls (normal-light reared, NR), and levels were restored after 2 hours of visual experience (CDR + L and DDR + L). pCREB levels were low and barely detectable (see the Results section for details). ((c)–(f)) Quantification of immunoblots () for CREB ((c) and (d)) and pCREB ((e) and (f)) levels for DR ((c) and (e)) and DR + L conditions ((d) and (f)). The bars depict the relative averaged optical densities for each of the DR conditions (–8 dLGNs for each group per blot). Error bars represent ±SEM. The dotted line and corresponding shaded area reflect the averaged and ±SEM of CREB or pCREB protein levels obtained from age-matched controls. Total CREB levels for both DR conditions were significantly higher than control ((c), LSD post hoc test, * for both conditions).
