Histological Analysis of a Mouse Model of the 22q11.2 Microdeletion Syndrome

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is associated with a high risk of developing various psychiatric and developmental disorders, including schizophrenia and early-onset Parkinson's disease. Recently, a mouse model of this disease, Del(3.0Mb)/+, mimicking the 3.0 Mb deletion which is most frequently found in patients with 22q11.2DS, was generated. The behavior of this mouse model was extensively studied and several abnormalities related to the symptoms of 22q11.2DS were found. However, the histological features of their brains have been little addressed. Here we describe the cytoarchitectures of the brains of Del(3.0Mb)/+ mice. First, we investigated the overall histology of the embryonic and adult cerebral cortices, but they were indistinguishable from the wild type. However, the morphologies of individual neurons were slightly but significantly changed from the wild type counterparts in a region-specific manner. The dendritic branches and/or dendritic spine densities of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and primary somatosensory cortex were reduced. We also observed reduced axon innervation of dopaminergic neurons into the prefrontal cortex. Given these affected neurons function together as the dopamine system to control animal behaviors, the impairment we observed may explain a part of the abnormal behaviors of Del(3.0Mb)/+ mice and the psychiatric symptoms of 22q11.2DS.