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Lcn2 deficiency leads to social impairments independent of maternal immune activation

GSE303157 Mus musculus (mouse) RNA-seq (gene expression) 18 samples Submitted 2026/03/17 Platform GPL24247
At a glance

RNA-seq (gene expression) · mouse · 18 samples

What it is
RNA-seq (gene expression)Gene activity measured by sequencing. The summary does not mention single-cell work, so this is most likely bulk: one average per sample, the usual starting point for comparing groups.
Organism
Mus musculus (mouse)
Samples
18 samples: 6 × forebrain, E18 WT, 4 hours after last saline injection vs 6 × forebrain, E18 WT, 4 hours after last LPS injection vs 6 × forebrain, E18 KO, 4 hours after last saline injectionGroups are read from the sample names, not from the paper. Check the list below.
Data you can get
A processed table (series matrix) and supplementary files from NCBI; the raw sequencing reads from ENA. Which of these hold counts depends on the study, so check the file list.
Paper
Lcn2 deficiency leads to long-lasting social impairments independent of maternal immune activationJournal of neuroinflammation · 2026
Summary (written by the submitters)
Maternal infection during pregnancy is a well-established risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Lipocalin-2 (Lcn2), an innate immune protein that is highly upregulated during infection, also affects neuronal and glial function. This study investigates the role of Lcn2 in shaping brain development, particularly after maternal immune activation (MIA).
Read the full summary ↓
To mimic maternal infection, pregnant mice received intraperitoneal injections of either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or saline on embryonic days 16 to 18 to model infection during the second trimester of pregnancy in humans. We first showed that Lcn2 mRNA is expressed in the fetal brain and that MIA significantly upregulates Lcn2 mRNA and protein in the hippocampus and neocortex of both sexes. To assess functional relevance, we employed Lcn2 heterozygous females to generate wild-type and Lcn2 KO offspring from the MIA and control groups. Both female and male offspring underwent a battery of behavioral assays. Lcn2 deletion and MIA independently induced deficits in social behavior and increased repetitive behavior phenotypes relevant to NDDs. However, their combination did not exacerbate these effects, suggesting an occlusion effect. Importantly, the impact of Lcn2 deletion and MIA appeared to be specific to social and repetitive behavior, as no deficits were observed in the learning and memory task. To investigate potential shared molecular mechanisms, we performed RNA sequencing of the fetal forebrain 4 hours after the final LPS injection. This analysis revealed an overlapping group of differentially expressed genes in the Lcn2 KO and MIA groups, indicating convergence on similar transcriptional pathways that may underlie the observed behavioral phenotypes. These results suggest that while Lcn2 may not mediate the pathological effects of prenatal immune challenge, it plays a critical role in normal brain development.
Published in
Lcn2 deficiency leads to long-lasting social impairments independent of maternal immune activation
Pekala M, Zawiślak S, Romanis S et al. · Journal of neuroinflammation 2026 · PMID 41742209 · doi:10.1186/s12974-026-03742-1
This dataset
Open GSE303157 in finder → Find more mouse RNA-seq datasets →
Download · which file do I need?

Direct links to NCBI and ENA, no account and no request form. Pick by what you want to do: take the small processed table to look, the supplementary files to re-analyse, or the original raw data to start over.

1 · Just have a look

Processed table

The series matrix: one table of values per sample as the submitters processed it. The smallest download, and it opens in Excel or R. Start here to see what the data look like.

Series matrix ↓
2 · Re-analyse it

Supplementary files

The count tables and other files the authors uploaded. Take only the samples you need, or the whole study as GSE303157_RAW.tar (it can run to tens of gigabytes).

All supplementary files ↗ Whole study · RAW.tar ↓
3 · Start from the raw reads

Raw sequencing reads

The original FASTQ files, straight from the sequencer, held at ENA. Large, and you align them yourself, so only choose this if you need to re-process the study from scratch.

Raw reads on ENA ↗

What the files usually look like: For RNA-seq the counts are usually a table among the supplementary files (look for 'counts', 'expression', 'FPKM' or 'TPM' in the file name). The series matrix of a sequencing study is sometimes nearly empty.

Also filed as BioProject PRJNA1294255 and SRA study SRP602573. Searching any of these in the dataset finder brings you back here.

NCBI GEO page ↗ Paper (PMID 41742209) ↗
Study design
6 × forebrain, E18 WT, 4 hours after last saline injection vs 6 × forebrain, E18 WT, 4 hours after last LPS injection vs 6 × forebrain, E18 KO, 4 hours after last saline injection

Supports a between-group comparison across 18 samples.

How we read this: 3 replicated groups read from 18 sample titles; they account for 18 of them. These groups are guessed from the sample names, not taken from the paper, so check them against the sample list below before relying on them.

Samples in this study
Datasets on a similar topic

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