These effects occurred without differences in response latency or anxiety-like behavior. Why? We think it's because Apoe transcription affects different cell types, and therefore network activity, differently in males and females. We found cellular evidence for this by looking at Fos transcription.

Specifically - Apoe overexpression accelerated task learning in female mice, while having no effect on learning in male mice. In contrast, Apoe overexpression decreased performance in well-trained male mice, but had no effect on performance in well-trained female mice. 3/n

They used an expression cassette to induce Apoe transcription in the mouse frontal cortex, and tested these mice on a touchscreen attention task. The big takeaway is that Apoe overexpression affects males and females differently. 2/n

It begins...

Had a great time at my first wcbr! Always gratifying to see my kick ass students present their work! Olympic valley is also a crazy mountain. #wcbr2025

7/ Which types of neurons? Turns out, it's GABAergic neurons, and the subtype is somatostatin-expressing - but only in female mice! Most literature characterizes Apoe as a gene expressed in glia, but its activity-dependent expression seems strongest in inhibitory neurons.

6/ My first thesis student, Genevieve Craig, repeated the original experiment, but this time with male and female mice. She also used RNAscope to look at Apoe expression in specific cell types. She found that LC induced Apoe expression was highest in neurons (compared to astrocytes).

Come and say hi at the Hallock lab posters at SfN before you leave on Wednesday! Two talented undergrads will be presenting what they've been working on for the past couple of years.

This is cool!

Lab's first Fluorescent Friday. Who needs hashtags?