Abstract:
Vitamin D Deficiency (VDD) is a major public health problem worldwide and has a closed relationship with children’s neurodevelopment. The Excitation/Inhibition imbalance (E/I imbalance) induced by microglial activation could be an important contributing factor, but its underlying mechanisms are still unclear. In the present study, we first found that VDD led to hyperactivity, anxiety, and cognitive impairment in the juvenile mice. In addition, VDD modified the activity of glutamatergic neurons in the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) of juvenile mice, leading to the E/I imbalance-related abnormal behaviours. Furthermore, we found that microglial in the PFC were activated with significant branch structure changes in the VDD juvenile mice. Finally, we found that microglia depletion by PLX5622, a colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSFR1) antagonist, may meliorate E/I imbalance and neurobehavioral abnormalities in the VDD juvenile mice. Our study reveals significant correlations of neurobehavioral abnormalities, E/I imbalance and microglial activation induced by VDD in juvenile mice.
