Abstracts - Society for Developmental Biology

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neuronal signaling to smooth muscle. Our study demonstrates the importance of h-CaD on force development in smooth
muscle and the need for further investigation of its potential role in intestinal motility disorders.
Program/Abstract # 287
The integrity of the hippocampus in SIV-infected infant Primates
Burke, Mark; Curtis, Kimberly; Carryl, Heather; Haddad, Georges, College of Medicine, Howard University,
Washington, United States; Abel, Kristina (School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States)
Pediatric HIV infection remains a global health crisis with a worldwide infection rate of 2.5 million (WHO, Geneva
Switzerland, 2009). Children are much more susceptible to HIV-1 neurological impairments than adults, which is
exacerbated by co-infections. A main and obvious obstacle in pediatric HIV research is sample access. The proposed
studies will take advantage of ongoing pediatric SIV pathogenesis and vaccine studies to maximize the use of nonhuman
primate resources. This expands the original pediatric SIV-related immunology studies to include quantitative
neuropathology studies. Newborn rhesus macaques (Macacca mulatta) that received oral inoculation with arepeatedexposure
of SIVmac251 (n=3) or vehicle (control n=3) were recruited for this study. After a 6-18 week survival time, the
animals were sacrificed and the brains prepared for quantitative histopathological analysis. Here we report the total
neuronal population of CA1, CA2, and CA3 are significantly reduced after two months of SIV infection using designbased
stereology. This project assesses the impact of early HIV infection on the brain towards the long-term goal of
evaluating treatment paradigms designed to protect the integrity of the developing brain from combined viral and bacterial
infections through an interdisciplinary approach.
Program/Abstract # 288
Temporal polar and anterior cingulate cortical thinning in psychopath offenders
Calzado, Ana, Institute of Legal Medicine, Havana City, Cuba; Valdes-Sosa, Mitchell; Alvarez-Amador, Alfredo; Galán-
García, Lídice; Melie-García, Lester; Alemán-Gómez, Yasser (Cuban Center of Neuroscience, Havana City, Cuba)
Psychopathy is characterized by a lack of empathy and the formation of transient and exploitive interpersonal relationships.
The goal of this study was to determine whether brain regions implicated in emotional processing and behavioral
regulation showed structural alterations in psychopath offenders. Using a surface-based whole brain analysis to detect
associations between gray matter thickness and the Hare total score were identified in entire cortex analyses in 97 violent
offenders (29 offenders with and 68 without psychopathy defined by the PCL-R scale. We found that psychopathy was
associated with highly significant (FDR=0.01) thinning of the cortical surface within the left dorsal anterior cingulate and
temporal pole cortices. Given recent evidences of gray matter changes during neurodevelopment, these findings may
indicate impairment in cortical maturation in important brain areas implicated empathic and emotional processing in
offenders with psychopathy. Keyword: psychopathy, MRI, thickness, offenders
Program/Abstract # 289
Identification of MPPED1 as a protein interacting with human FOXP2 R553H mutant protein associated with
speech and language disorder
Liu, Fu-chin; Chen, Yi-Chuan; Fong, Weng-Lam; Lu, Kuan-Ming, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
The genetic linkage study of the KE family shows that a missense R553H mutation of FOXP2 is the cause of a severe
speech and language disorder in the affected members. Clinical neuroimaging studies indicate that the caudate nucleus of
striatum and the inferior frontal gyrus are structurally and functionally abnormal in the patient's brain. FOXP2 is therefore
the first gene identified to be involved in speech and language. Our study is aimed to study the biological function of
FOXP2 in developmental and functional of the cortical basal ganglia circuits in the brain. FOXP2 was nuclear protein, but
FOXP2R553H mutant protein was expressed in the cytosol. To identify the proteins that might interact with FOXP2R553H
mutant protein, we preformed the yeast two-hybrid system to screen for interacting proteins. We screened 1.31 x 109
clones of human fetal brain cDNA library. One of the interacting proteins that we identified was Metallophosphoesterase
Domain Containing Gene 1 (MPPED1), a cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase that was localized in cytosol. Coimmunoprecipitation
assay confirmed that FOXP2R553H mutant protein, but not wild type FOXP2 protein interacted with
MPPED1 in transfected HEK293T cells. Double immunostaining further demonstrated co-localization of FOXP2R553H
mutant protein and MPPED1 in cytosol of transfected neural ST14A cells. These findings suggest that FOXP2R553H
mutant protein may have gain-of-function by interacting with MPPED1 protein that can hydrolyze cAMP. The potential
interference of MPPED1 activity by FOXP2R553H mutant protein may be involved in the pathophysiology of KE
language disorder. Supported by National Science Council grant NSC97-2321-B-010-006, NSC98-2321-B-010-002,
NSC99-2321-B-010-002, NSC100-2321-B-010-002.