Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and its structurally related proteins are implicated in the developmental regulation of various brain neurons, including midbrain dopaminergic neurons. There are EGF and EGF receptor abnormalities in both brain tissues and blood from schizophrenic patients. We administered EGF to neonatal rats to transiently perturb endogenous EGF receptor signaling and evaluated the neurobehavioral consequences. EGF-treatment-induced transient impairment in tyrosine hydroxylase expression. The animals grew normally, exhibited normal weight increase, glial growth, and gross brain structures, and later lost the tyrosine hydroxylase abnormality. During and after development, however, the rats began to display various behavioral abnormalities. Abnormal sensorimotor gating was apparent, as measured by deficits in prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle. Motor activity and social interaction scores of the EGF-treated animals were also impaired in adult rats, though not in earlier developmental stages. In parallel, there was a significant abnormality in dopamine metabolism in the brain stem of the adult animals. Gross learning ability appeared to be normal as measured by active avoidance. These behavioral alterations, which are often present in schizophrenic models, were ameliorated by subchronic treatment with clozapine. Although the molecular and/or physiologic background(s) of these behavioral abnormalities await further investigation, the results of the present experiment indicate that abnormal EGF receptor stimulation given during limited neonatal stages can result in severe and persistent cognitive/behavioral dysfunctions, which appear only in adulthood.

Neuregulin-1 (NRG1) is implicated in the etiology or pathology of schizophrenia, although its biological roles in this illness are not fully understood. Human midbrain dopaminergic neurons highly express NRG1 receptors (ErbB4). To test its neuropathological role in the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia, we administered type-1 NRG1 protein to neonatal mice and evaluated the immediate and subsequent effects on dopaminergic neurons and their associated behaviors. Peripheral NRG1 administration activated midbrain ErbB4 and elevated the expression, phosphorylation and enzyme activity of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), which ultimately increased dopamine levels. The hyperdopaminergic state was sustained in the medial prefrontal cortex after puberty. There were marked increases in dopaminergic terminals and TH levels. In agreement, higher amounts of dopamine were released from this brain region of NRG1-treated mice following high potassium stimulation. Furthermore, NRG1-treated mice exhibited behavioral impairments in prepulse inhibition, latent inhibition, social behaviors and hypersensitivity to methamphetamine. However, there were no gross abnormalities in brain structures or other phenotypic features of neurons and glial cells. Collectively, our findings provide novel insights into neurotrophic contribution of NRG1 to dopaminergic maldevelopment and schizophrenia pathogenesis.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is one of the ErbB receptor ligands implicated in schizophrenia neuropathology as well as in dopaminergic development. Based on the immune inflammatory hypothesis for schizophrenia, neonatal rats are exposed to this cytokine and later develop neurobehavioral abnormality such as prepulse inhibition (PPI) deficit. Here we found that the EGF-treated rats exhibited persistent increases in tyrosine hydroxylase levels and dopamine content in the globus pallidus. Furthermore, pallidal dopamine release was elevated in EGF-treated rats, but normalized by subchronic treatment with risperidone concomitant with amelioration of their PPI deficits. To evaluate pathophysiologic roles of the dopamine abnormality, we administered reserpine bilaterally to the globus pallidus to reduce the local dopamine pool. Reserpine infusion ameliorated PPI deficits of EGF-treated rats without apparent aversive effects on locomotor activity in these rats. We also administered dopamine D1-like and D2-like receptor antagonists (SCH23390 and raclopride) and a D2-like receptor agonist (quinpirole) to the globus pallidus and measured PPI and bar-hang latencies. Raclopride (0.5 and 2.0 µg/site) significantly elevated PPI levels of EGF-treated rats, but SCH23390 (0.5 and 2.0 µg/site) had no effect. The higher dose of raclopride induced catalepsy-like changes in control animals but not in EGF-treated rats. Conversely, local quinpirole administration to EGF-untreated control rats induced PPI deficits and anti-cataleptic behaviors, confirming the pathophysiologic role of the pallidal hyperdopaminergic state. These findings suggest that the pallidal dopaminergic innervation is vulnerable to circulating EGF at perinatal and/or neonatal stages and has strong impact on the D2-like receptor-dependent behavioral deficits relevant to schizophrenia.

Perinatal exposure to epidermal growth factor (EGF) induces various cognitive and behavioral abnormalities after maturation in non-human animals, and is used for animal models of schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia often display a reduction of mismatch negativity (MMN), which is a stimulus-change specific event-related brain potential. Do the EGF model animals also exhibit the MMN reduction as schizophrenic patients do? This study addressed this question to verify the pathophysiological validity of this model. Neonatal rats received repeated administration of EGF or saline and were grown until adulthood. Employing the odd-ball paradigm of distinct tone pitches, tone-evoked electroencephalogram (EEG) components were recorded from electrodes on the auditory and frontal cortices of awake rats, referencing an electrode on the frontal sinus. The amplitude of the MMN-like potential was significantly reduced in EGF-treated rats compared with saline-injected control rats. The wavelet analysis of the EEG during a near period of tone stimulation revealed that synchronization of EEG activity, especially with beta and gamma bands, was reduced in EGF-treated rats. Results suggest that animals exposed to EGF during a perinatal period serve as a promising neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia.

Consistent with the hypothesis that neuroinflammatory processes contribute to the neuropathology of schizophrenia, the protein levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and its receptor ErbB1 are abnormal in patients with schizophrenia. To evaluate neuropathological significance of this abnormality, we established an animal model for behavioral deficits by administering EGF into the striatum and evaluated the effects of cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) inhibitor celecoxib. Intracranial infusion of EGF into the striatum of adult male rats activated ErbB1 and induced neurobehavioral impairments observed in several schizophrenia models. Unilateral EGF infusion to the striatum lowered prepulse inhibition (PPI) in a dose-dependent manner and impaired latent learning of active shock avoidance without affecting basal learning ability. Bilateral EGF infusion similarly affected PPI. In contrast, EGF infusion to the nucleus accumbens did not induce a behavioral deficit. Intrastriatal EGF infusion also increased Cox-2 expression, elevated tyrosine hydroxylase activity, and upregulated the levels of dopamine and its metabolites. Subchronic administration of celecoxib (10 mg/kg, p.o.) ameliorated the abnormalities in PPI and latent learning as well as normalized dopamine metabolism. We conclude that this EGF-triggered neuroinflammatory process is mediated in part by Cox-2 activity and perturbs dopamine metabolism to generate neurobehavioral abnormalities.

Hyperdopaminergic activities are often linked to positive symptoms of schizophrenia, but their neuropathological implications on negative symptoms are rather controversial among reports. Here, we explored the regulatory role of the resting state-neural activity of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) on social interaction using a developmental rat model for schizophrenia. We prepared the model by administering an ammonitic cytokine, epidermal growth factor (EGF), to rat pups, which later exhibit the deficits of social interaction as monitored with same-gender affiliative sniffing. In vivo single-unit recording and microdialysis revealed that the baseline firing frequency of and dopamine release from VTA dopaminergic neurons were chronically increased in EGF model rats, and their social interaction was concomitantly reduced. Subchronic treatment with risperidone ameliorated both the social interaction deficits and higher frequency of dopaminergic cell firing in this model. Sustained suppression of hyperdopaminergic cell firing in EGF model rats by DREADD chemogenetic intervention restored the event-triggered dopamine release and their social behaviors. These observations suggest that the higher resting-state activity of VTA dopaminergic neurons is responsible for the reduced social interaction of this schizophrenia model.

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Ligands for ErbB receptors, including epidermal growth factor (EGF) and neuregulin-1, have a neurotrophic activity on midbrain dopaminergic neurons and are implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Although ErbB kinase inhibitors ameliorate behavioral deficits of the schizophrenia model that was established by hippocampal lesioning of rat pups, the antipsychotic action of ErbB kinase inhibitors and its general applicability to other models are not fully characterized. Using a different animal model, here, we examined whether and how ErbB kinase inhibitors ameliorate the behavioral endophenotypes relevant to schizophrenia. The animal model for schizophrenia was prepared by exposing neonatal rats to the cytokine EGF. Intraventricular infusion of the ErbB1 inhibitors ZD1839 and PD153035 in these animals ameliorated the deficits in startle response and prepulse inhibition in a dose-dependent manner. The deficits of latent inhibition of fear learning were also alleviated by ZD1839 with its limited effects on body weight gain or locomotor activity. ZD1839 infusion also decreased the busting activity of nigral dopamine (DA) neurons and reduced pallidal DA metabolism, a result that mimics the anti-dopaminergic profile of risperidone and haloperidol in this brain region. ErbB inhibitors appear to have anti-dopaminergic actions to alleviate some of the behavioral deficits common to animal models for schizophrenia.