对年幼小鼠的新的研究表明，社会性隔离，即一个被剥夺的环境，会影响大脑绝缘细胞的发育。Manabu Makinodan及其同事说，事实上，看来有一个独特的时期，在该时期中社会经验可促成这些细胞的适当的成熟。这些发现为一个不断增加的人类研究增添了内容，这些研究显示，孩提时期的疏忽可导致成年时不正常的认知和社会行为——它们还可能揭示这些亏损是否能够被逆转。在这个例子中，研究人员显示，那些在断奶后立刻被隔离2周的小鼠会有未充分发育的少突胶质细胞——这些少突胶质细胞形成了带有脑神经元之间信号的神经分支延伸支的髓鞘并对其进行保护。与那些在有玩伴及循环供应玩具情况下饲养的小鼠相比，这些被隔离的小鼠所经历的脑功能变化不能被后来将这些小鼠放置在一个更具刺激性和社会性的环境中而得到逆转。文章的作者说，在一个早期大脑生长的时期中，隔离会减少某种与少突胶质细胞发育有关的关键性信号传导分子的表达。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi: 10.1126/science.1220845
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A Critical Period for Social Experience–Dependent Oligodendrocyte Maturation and Myelination
Manabu Makinodan, Kenneth M. Rosen, Susumu Ito, Gabriel Corfas
Early social isolation results in adult behavioral and cognitive dysfunction that correlates with white matter alterations. However, how social deprivation influences myelination and the significance of these myelin defects in the adult remained undefined. We show that mice isolated for 2 weeks immediately after weaning have alterations in prefrontal cortex function and myelination that do not recover with reintroduction into a social environment. These alterations, which occur only during this critical period, are phenocopied by loss of oligodendrocyte ErbB3 receptors, and social isolation leads to reduced expression of the ErbB3 ligand neuregulin-1. These findings indicate that social experience regulates prefrontal cortex myelination through neuregulin-1/ErbB3 signaling and that this is essential for normal cognitive function, thus providing a cellular and molecular context to understand the consequences of social isolation.
