Visualizing traumatic stress-induced structural plasticity in a medial amygdala pathway using mGRASP

MEA (Medial amygdalar nucleus) MBA:403 projects to VMH (Ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus) MBA:693 · Mouse

An AAV expressing pre-mGRASP with mCerulean was injected into the posteroventral medial amygdala. mCerulean-labelled MeApv axons and boutons were seen in the ventrolateral ventromedial hypothalamus, among dTomato-expressing VmHvl cells.

Fig. 1C-D; Supplementary Fig. 1A-C

Made by an AI model reading the paper (claude-opus-5-5, extract@0.3.0); a second AI model (claude-opus-5-5) agrees.

MEA (Medial amygdalar nucleus) MBA:403 synapses onto VMH (Ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus) MBA:693 · Mouse

Pre-mGRASP was expressed in MeApv and post-mGRASP in VmHvl. Reconstituted GFP puncta, marking MeApv-VmHvl synapses, appeared on the shafts and spines of VmHvl dendrites. These puncta increased in number and size seven days after foot-shock stress.

Fig. 1D-J; Supplementary Fig. 2

Made by an AI model reading the paper (claude-opus-5-5, extract@0.3.0); a second AI model (claude-opus-5-5) agrees.

MEA glutamatergic neurons nt-3kvfdzf7wn synapses onto VMH (Ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus) MBA:693 · Mouse

Most pre-mGRASP-expressing MeApv cells co-expressed CaMKIIα-driven mCherry or hM4D(Gi). These cells formed mGRASP-labelled synapses on VmHvl dendrites, and chemogenetic inhibition of them during foot shock reduced the stress-induced increase in mGRASP puncta.

Fig. 2B-G; Supplementary Fig. 1E-K

Made by an AI model reading the paper (claude-opus-5-5, extract@0.3.0); a second AI model (claude-opus-5-5) agrees.