Cell-Type-Speciﬁc Afferent Innervation of the Nucleus Accum

A retrograde transsynaptic tracing system based on a modiﬁed RV was used to demonstrate the whole-brain monosynaptic inputs for each cell type. (From BrainVTA)

The viruses used in this article from BrainVTA are in the table below

Tracing Helper	AAV9-EF1a-FLEX-EGFP-2a-TVA AAV9-EF1a-FLEX-RG
RV	R01002 RV-EnvA-△G-dsRed

Pub Date: 2018-10-16, DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2018.00084, Email: sales@brainvta.com
Zhao Li, Zhilong Chen, Guoqing Fan, Anan Li, Jing Yuan and Tonghui Xu
The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is clearly implicated in reward processing and drug addiction, as well as in numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders; nevertheless, the circuit mechanisms underlying the diverse functions of the NAc remain poorly understood. Here, we characterized the whole-brain and monosynaptic inputs to two main projection cell types – D1 dopamine receptor expressing medium spiny neurons (D1R-MSNs) and D2 dopamine receptor expressing medium spiny neurons (D2R-MSNs) – within the NAc core and NAc shell by rabies-mediated trans-synaptic tracing. We discovered that D1R-MSNs and D2R-MSNs in both NAc subregions receive similar inputs from diverse sources. Inputs to the NAc core are broadly scattered, whereas inputs to the NAc shell are relatively concentrated. Furthermore, we identiﬁed numerous brain areas providing important contrasting inputs to different NAc subregions. The anterior cortex preferentially innervates the NAc core for both D1R-MSNs and D2R-MSNs, whereas the lateral hypothalamic area (LH) preferentially targets D1R-MSNs in the NAc shell. Characterizing the cell-type-speciﬁc connectivity of different NAc subregions lays a foundation for studying how diverse functions of the NAc are mediated by speciﬁc pathways.

Figure. 1 Control experiments for rabies-mediated transsynaptic tracing.

In the present study, the authors utilized such a virus-based labeling technique to identify monosynaptic inputs to D1R- and D2R-MSNs within diﬀerent NAc subregions. They then compared the input distribution patterns among four groups deﬁned by cell type and location. Although the input distributions of diﬀerent cell types were highly similar, diﬀerent NAc subregions had signiﬁcantly diﬀerent biased inputs from numerous brain areas. These ﬁndings provide an anatomical foundation for future.

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