Genetic influence on neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of two strains of adult mice

Previous studies have suggested that there is a genetic influence on the regulation of cell proliferation and survival within the hippocampus. However, the links between perturbations in neurogenesis and genomic control remain unclear. Here, we examined the impact of mouse strain on four parameters of the neurogenic program, proliferation, migration, differentiation and survival in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus as a means of determining whether allelic variation of two independently derived mouse strains, FVB/NJ and C57BL/6J, modulates basal adult murine dentate gyrus neurogenesis. New cells were labeled with the thymidine analogue 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and their identity was determined immunocytochemically with various phenotypic markers. Consistent with previous studies in other strains of mice, we observed a strain-dependent difference in hippocampal proliferation. Hippocampal cell proliferation in FVB/NJ mice was reduced as compared to animals of the C57BL/6J strain. In contrast, the number of surviving cells in C57BL/6J mice was not significantly different from FVB/NJ mice. Regardless of mouse strain, the majority of surviving BrdU-labeled cells migrated into the granule cell layer and was of a neuronal phenotype. However, fewer surviving cells were located within the granule cell layer of FVB/NJ mice as compared to C57BL/6J mice. Overall, regardless of strain, no significant differences in the relative ratio of neurogenesis versus gliagenesis were observed. These results suggest that genetic background primarily influences newborn cell proliferation and migration, but not differentiation or survival.