Host: The Physiological Society of Japan
The identification of endophenotypes is an essential step for investigating psychiatric illness, but represents a considerable challenge in human patients. Here we show that alpha-CaMKII heterozygous knockout mice have dysregulated behaviors, including a severe working memory deficit and an exaggerated infradian rhythm. The neurons of the dentate gyrus (DG) in the mutants resembled immature DG neurons in normal rodents. Biomarkers derived from the mutants classified individuals into two clusters, one of which had higher susceptibility to schizophrenia and differential expression of genes related to neural development. Based on these results, we propose the "immature DG" as a candidate endophenotype of psychiatric disorders. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S15]
