Articles

  • KSBNS 2024

Article

Original Article

Exp Neurobiol 2022; 31(3): 158-172

Published online June 30, 2022

https://doi.org/10.5607/en22016

© The Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Generation of Astrocyte-Specific MAOB Conditional Knockout Mouse with Minimal Tonic GABA Inhibition

Jung Moo Lee1,2†, Moonsun Sa1,2†, Heeyoung An2, Jong Min Joseph Kim3, Jea Kwon2, Bo-Eun Yoon3 and C. Justin Lee1,2*

1KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul 02841, 2Center for Cognition and Sociality, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon 34126, 3Department of Molecular biology, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea

Correspondence to: *To whom correspondence should be addressed.
TEL: 82-42-878-9150, FAX: 82-42-878-9151
e-mail: cjl@ibs.re.kr
These authors contributed equally to this article.

Received: April 28, 2022; Revised: May 20, 2022; Accepted: May 20, 2022

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Monoamine oxidase B (MAOB) is a key enzyme for GABA production in astrocytes in several brain regions. To date, the role of astrocytic MAOB has been studied in MAOB null knockout (KO) mice, although MAOB is expressed throughout the body. Therefore, there has been a need for genetically engineered mice in which only astrocytic MAOB is targeted. Here, we generated an astrocyte-specific MAOB conditional KO (cKO) mouse line and characterized it in the cerebellar and striatal regions of the brain. Using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique, we generated Maob floxed mice (B6-Maobem1Cjl/Ibs) which have floxed exons 2 and 3 of Maob with two loxP sites. By crossing these mice with hGFAP-CreERT2, we obtained Maob floxed::hGFAP-CreERT2 mice which have a property of tamoxifen-inducible ablation of Maob under the human GFAP (hGFAP) promoter. When we treated Maob floxed::hGFAP-CreERT2 mice with tamoxifen for 5 consecutive days, MAOB and GABA immunoreactivity were significantly reduced in striatal astrocytes as well as in Bergmann glia and lamellar astrocytes in the cerebellum, compared to sunflower oil-injected control mice. Moreover, astrocyte-specific MAOB cKO led to a 74.6% reduction in tonic GABA currents from granule cells and a 76.8% reduction from medium spiny neurons. Our results validate that astrocytic MAOB is a critical enzyme for the synthesis of GABA in astrocytes. We propose that this new mouse line could be widely used in studies of various brain diseases to elucidate the pathological role of astrocytic MAOB in the future.

Graphical Abstract


Keywords: Astrocyte, MAOB, GABA, Striatum, Cerebellum, Conditional knockout mouse