Fig. 2.
VWR induction of ΔFosB in NAc. a Coronal cartoon showing NAc core (AcbCo) and shell (AcbSh), and dorsomedial (dmStr) and dorsolateral (dlStr) striatum regions of interest (ROI; red) used for quantification of ΔFosB+ neurons. VL lateral ventricle. b Representative single channel confocal micrographs of ΔFosB+ (green) neurons in AcbCo of sedentary (SED) and voluntary wheel running (VWR) mice after 14 d of VWR (scale bar, 60 μm). c Quantification of ΔFosB+ neurons in AcbCo, AcbSh, dmStr and dlStr ROIs in SED (S) and VWR (V) mice (n = 8/group; t1,14 = 3.42, **P = 0.004; t1,14 = 2.09, P = 0.054; t1,14 = 2.19, *P = 0.046; t1, 14 = 0.72, P = 0.49, respectively; t-test). d Representative protein blots of the 35–37kd ΔFosB isoforms (left) and quantification of ΔFosB protein levels (right) in whole NAc dissections of mice after 21 d of SED, cage enrichment (ENR), or VWR housing (n = 15–17; F2, 44 = 9.08, P = 0.0005; *P = 0.0007 versus SED, +P = 0.01 versus ENR; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test). e Representative single channel and overlay confocal micrographs of ΔFosB (green), TdTomato (red), and DAPI (blue). 1: TdTomato+: ΔFosB— medium spiny neuron (MSN); 2: TdTomato+: ΔFosB+ MSN; 3: TdTomato—: ΔFosB+ MSN (scale bar, 15 µm). f Quantification of the percentage of the TdTomato+ (TdT+) and TdTomato— (TdT-) MSNs that were also ΔFosB+ in the AcbCo (left; main effect of VWR, F1, 18 = 12.37, P = 0.003) or the AcbSh (right; main effect of VWR, F1, 18 = 4.54, P = 0.047; two-way ANOVA; t1, 9 = 2.32, *P = 0.046 versus SED TdT+; a posteriori t-test) of SED and VWR (14 d) Drd1a-Tdtomato mice (n = 5–6/group). g Bilateral intra-accumbal administration of AAV-GFP or AAV-mCREB. Overexpression of mCREB specifically in the NAc during VWR for 21 d prevented VWR induction of ΔFosB in whole NAc dissections (VWR x AAV interaction, F1, 12 = 6.12, P = 0.03; *P = 0.04 versus SEDGFP; +P = 0.004 versus SEDmCREB; §P = 0.004 versus VWRmCREB; two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test; n = 5–6/group)