Construction of a Mex3c Gene-Deficient Mouse Model to Study C-FOS Expression in Hypothalamic Nuclei and Observe Morphological Differences in Embryonic Neural Tube Development

BACKGROUND: This study utilized CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to construct a Mex3c gene-deficient mouse model, and studied C-FOS expression in hypothalamic nuclei. MATERIAL/METHODS: Thirty Mex3c(−/+) mice, 30 mice in the normal group, and 30 Mex3c(−/+) mice were randomly divided into control, leptin, and ghrelin groups according to different intraperitoneal injections. HE and Nissl staining were performed to observe the morphology of hypothalamic nerve cells. The C-FOS expression in hypothalamic nuclei of each group was analyzed by immunohistochemical techniques. HE staining was used to observe neural tube morphology, and LFB staining was used to observe nerve myelin sheath morphology. TEM was used to observe neuronal ultrastructure and immunohistochemical techniques were utilized to analyze nestin expression. RESULTS: C-FOS expression was lower in the normal control group than in the leptin and ghrelin groups. The Mex3c control group and the leptin group had higher C-FOS expression than the ghrelin group. In neural tube studies, no significant differences were found in the neural tube pathological sections of E14.5-day embryos in each group. Nestin results demonstrated lower expression in the normal group and there was little difference between the HD and Mex3c groups. CONCLUSIONS: Mex3c appears to participate in the regulation of energy metabolism by inducing C-FOS expression in the hypothalamus. The neural tubes of the offspring of Mex3c(−/+) mice had defects during development.