An increase in neural stem cells and olfactory bulb adult neurogenesis improves discrimination of highly similar odorants

• Sara Bragado Alonso ^[1] ; Janine K Reinert ^[2] ; Nicolas Marichal ^[3] ; Simone Massalini ^[1] ; Benedikt Berninger ^[3] ; Thomas Kuner ^[2] ; Federico Calegari ^[1]
  1. [1] Dresden University of Technology

     Dresden University of Technology

     Kreisfreie Stadt Dresden, Alemania

     
  2. [2] 2 Department of Functional Neuroanatomy Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology Heidelberg University Heidelberg Germany
  3. [3] 3 Institute of Physiological Chemistry University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Mainz Germany; 4 Centre for Developmental Neurobiology and MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London UK

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• Localización: EMBO journal: European Molecular Biology Organization, ISSN 0261-4189, Vol. 38, Nº. 6, 2019
• Idioma: inglés
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  • Adult neurogenesis is involved in cognitive performance but studies that manipulated this process to improve brain function are scarce. Here, we characterized a genetic mouse model in which neural stem cells (NSC) of the subventricular zone (SVZ) were temporarily expanded by conditional expression of the cell cycle regulators Cdk4/cyclinD1, thus increasing neurogenesis. We found that supernumerary neurons matured and integrated in the olfactory bulb similarly to physiologically generated newborn neurons displaying a correct expression of molecular markers, morphology and electrophysiological activity. Olfactory performance upon increased neurogenesis was unchanged when mice were tested on relatively easy tasks using distinct odor stimuli. In contrast, intriguingly, increasing neurogenesis improved the discrimination ability of mice when challenged with a difficult task using mixtures of highly similar odorants. Together, our study provides a mammalian model to control the expansion of somatic stem cells that can in principle be applied to any tissue for basic research and models of therapy. By applying this to NSC of the SVZ, we highlighted the importance of adult neurogenesis to specifically improve performance in a challenging olfactory task.