%0 Journal Article %T Altered GABAergic markers, increased binocularity and reduced plasticity in the visual cortex of Engrailed-2 knockout mice %A Sacha Genovesi %A Paola Sgad¨° %A Matteo Caleo %A Yuri Bozzi %J Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience %D 2014 %I Frontiers Media %R 10.3389/fncel.2014.00163 %X The maturation of the GABAergic system is a crucial determinant of cortical development during early postnatal life, when sensory circuits undergo a process of activity-dependent refinement. An altered excitatory/inhibitory balance has been proposed as a possible pathogenic mechanism of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The homeobox-containing transcription factor Engrailed-2 (En2) has been associated to ASD, and En2 knockout (En2£¿/£¿) mice show ASD-like features accompanied by a partial loss of cortical GABAergic interneurons. Here we studied GABAergic markers and cortical function in En2£¿/£¿ mice, by exploiting the well-known anatomical and functional features of the mouse visual system. En2 is expressed in the visual cortex at postnatal day 30 and during adulthood. When compared to age-matched En2+/+ controls, En2£¿/£¿ mice showed an increased number of parvalbumin (PV+), somatostatin (SOM+), and neuropeptide Y (NPY+) positive interneurons in the visual cortex at P30, and a decreased number of SOM+ and NPY+ interneurons in the adult. At both ages, the differences in distinct interneuron populations observed between En2+/+ and En2£¿/£¿ mice were layer-specific. Adult En2£¿/£¿ mice displayed a normal eye-specific segregation in the retino-geniculate pathway, and in vivo electrophysiological recordings showed a normal development of basic functional properties (acuity, response latency, receptive field size) of the En2£¿/£¿ primary visual cortex. However, a significant increase of binocularity was found in P30 and adult En2£¿/£¿ mice, as compared to age-matched controls. Differently from what observed in En2+/+ mice, the En2£¿/£¿ primary visual cortex did not respond to a brief monocular deprivation performed between P26 and P29, during the so-called ¡°critical period.¡± These data suggest that altered GABAergic circuits impact baseline binocularity and plasticity in En2£¿/£¿ mice, while leaving other visual functional properties unaffected. %K plasticity %K inhibition %K monocular deprivation %K critical period %K neurodevelopmental disorder %U http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncel.2014.00163/abstract