Fig. 8

Gut microbiota and dopamine modulated E/I balance in mPFC of EphB6-deficient mice. a The 8-week-old male WT and KO mice were orally gavaged with the fecal microbiota from 8-week-old male WT mice or sterile PBS for 1 week. After 1 week, we recorded sEPSCs (b–f) and sIPSCs (g–k) of pyramidal neurons in mPFC of mice. b–f Representative sEPSCs traces from pyramidal neurons in mPFC of mice (b) were presented, scale bars: 3 s, 20 pA. Cumulative distribution of sEPSCs amplitudes (c), average amplitude of sEPSCs (d), cumulative distribution of sEPSCs frequencies (e), and average frequency of sEPSCs (f) were showed. n = 22, 21, 15, 18 cells from at least four mice respectively. g–k Representative sIPSCs traces from pyramidal neurons in mPFC of mice (g) were presented, scale bars: 3 s, 20 pA. Cumulative distribution of sIPSCs amplitudes (h), average amplitude of sIPSCs (i), cumulative distribution of sIPSCs frequencies (j), and average frequency of sIPSCs (k) were showed. n = 18, 14, 25, 20 cells from at least four mice respectively. l–o The mPFC slices of 8-week-old male KO mice were treated with 10 μM D1R agonist, then sEPSCs and sIPSCs of pyramidal neurons were recorded. Average amplitude (l) and frequency (m) of sEPSCs and average amplitude (n) and frequency (o) of sIPSCs were showed. n = 15, 15 or 14, 14 cells from at least four mice respectively. Data shown are mean ± SEM or median ± IQR. Two-tailed unpaired student’s t test (l, m, o), Mann Whitney test (n), Kruskal-Wallis test (d, f, i, k). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. WT EphB6^+/+ mice, KO EphB6^−/− mice, FMT fecal microbiota transplantation, PBS phosphate-buffered saline, mPFC middle prefrontal cortex, sEPSCs spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents, sIPSCs spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents. Statistical values are presented in Additional file 3: Table S2