Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Woonhee Kim, ChiHye Chung
Summary: Mood disorders are more prevalent and severe in women, but the underlying mechanisms of this sexual prevalence remain unclear. A study comparing brain activation in male and female mice after acute stress exposure found sexually dimorphic activation in certain brain areas, though core stress responding mechanisms were largely shared between sexes. Stress strengthened intra-circuitries in the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex in female mice, while longer-range connections were highlighted in stressed male mice. This study provides a valuable neuroanatomical framework for investigating the circuit mechanism underlying the higher vulnerability to depression in women.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Gui-ying Zan, Xiang Sun, Yu-jun Wang, Rui Liu, Chen-yao Wang, Wei-jia Du, Liu-bin Guo, Jing-rui Chai, Qing-lin Li, Zhi-qiang Liu, Jing-gen Liu
Summary: The study shows that upregulated dynorphin/kappa opioid receptor system in the amygdala leads to the emergence of depression following chronic social defeat stress, and suggests kappa opioid receptor antagonists as potential therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of depression following chronic stress.
ACTA PHARMACOLOGICA SINICA
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Steven T. Pittenger, Shinnyi Chou, Nathen J. Murawski, Scott T. Barrett, Olivia Loh, Juan F. Duque, Ming Li, Rick A. Bevins
Summary: The study found that meth-triggered reinstatement had a greater impact on females, showing a more robust effect. Females exhibited higher c-Fos immunoreactivity in multiple brain regions. This helps to further understand the influence of gender on meth relapse.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Hibiki Okamura, Shinnosuke Yasugaki, Haruka Suzuki-Abe, Yoshifumi Arai, Katsuyasu Sakurai, Masashi Yanagisawa, Hotaka Takizawa, Yu Hayashi
Summary: Understanding the long-term effects of stress on brain function is crucial for understanding the mechanisms of depression. This study investigated the effects of repeated social defeat stress (SDS) on behavior and brain activity in BALB/c mice over subsequent weeks. The results revealed the long-term effects of social stress on behavior and brain activity, providing insight into the underlying mechanisms of related diseases.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Caroline Baynard, Thomas E. Prisinzano, Eduardo R. Butelman
Summary: This study demonstrates that a novel KOR-antagonist can rapidly produce anti-immobility effects in a model of acute stress exposure.
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maria Roa Oyaga, Ines Serra, Devika Kurup, Sebastiaan K. E. Koekkoek, Aleksandra Badura
Summary: This study investigated the effect of sex, strain, and locomotion on delay eyeblink conditioning using male and female mice of C57BL/6J (B6) and B6CBAF1 strains. The results showed that females of both strains outperformed males in the initial stages of learning, but this sex difference disappeared as learning progressed. There was a strong positive correlation between learning scores and voluntary locomotion, regardless of training duration. The c-Fos immunostaining results revealed positive correlations between c-Fos expression and learning scores in the cerebellar cortex and brainstem, as well as previously unreported areas, after the short paradigm. However, after the long paradigm, c-Fos expression was significantly elevated only in the brainstem.
Article
Cell Biology
Alessandra Franceschini, Giacomo Mazzamuto, Curzio Checcucci, Lorenzo Chicchi, Duccio Fanelli, Irene Costantini, Maria Beatrice Passani, Bianca Ambrogina Silva, Francesco Saverio Pavone, Ludovico Silvestri
Summary: Fear responses are adaptive behaviors strengthened as memories. Understanding the neural circuitry modulating fear memory is crucial for comprehension of this emotion and its pathological states. The brain-wide neuron quantification toolkit (BRANT) allows for mapping whole-brain neuronal activation at micron-scale resolution, providing a comprehensive characterization of the evolution of fear memory.
Article
Neurosciences
Jackson Brougher, Umaymah Aziz, Nikitha Adari, Muskaan Chaturvedi, Aryela Jules, Iqra Shah, Saba Syed, Catherine A. Thorn
Summary: The study compared the effects of right cervical vagus nerve stimulation (r-VNS) with traditional left VNS (l-VNS) on self-administration behavior and midbrain dopaminergic activation in rats. The results showed that rats stimulated with r-VNS exhibited significantly more lever presses and greater c-Fos expression in dopamine-related brain regions compared to l-VNS, suggesting a preferential activation of the midbrain dopaminergic system by targeting the right cervical nerve.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Limary M. Cancel, Dharia Silas, Marom Bikson, John M. Tarbell
Summary: This study investigates the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on gene expression in astrocytes and endothelial cells (ECs). The results suggest that tDCS can directly modulate gene expression in astrocytes, while in ECs, it primarily activates gene expression through pressure-driven flow. This study provides new insights into the mechanisms of tDCS and highlights the role of glial cells in this process.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Gerardo Bernabe Ramirez-Rodriguez, David Meneses-San Juan, Jorge Julio Gonzalez-Olvera
Summary: This study investigated the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cognition, neurogenic-associated modifications, and neuronal activation in the hippocampus of female Swiss Webster mice. The results showed that rTMS twice a day for 14 days improved cognition and increased cell proliferation, doublecortin cells, dendrite morphology, c-Fos expression, and FosB/Delta-FosB immunoreactivity in the mice. The volume of the granular cell layer, mossy fibers, and CA3 also increased. These findings suggest that rTMS can enhance cognitive behavior, cell proliferation, and neuronal activation in healthy mice.
BRAIN RESEARCH BULLETIN
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mariann Eilertsen, Benjamin G. J. Clokie, Lars O. E. Ebbesson, Cristina Tanase, Herve Migaud, Jon Vidar Helvik
Summary: Photoreceptive inputs to the teleost brain are perceived as images of the visual world and modulation of neuroendocrine and neuronal signals. This study tested the effects of narrow bandwidth light on brain neural activity in Atlantic salmon, revealing an increase in c-fos expression and activation of specific brain regions following light stimulation. The overlapping expression patterns of c-fos and nonvisual opsins suggest a direct light stimulation of deep brain photoreceptors.
Article
Neurosciences
Steffen Gonda, Ina Koehler, Andre Haase, Katrin Czubay, Andrea Raek, Christian Riedel, Petra Wahle
Summary: Spontaneous or experimentally evoked activity can lead to changes in neocortical pyramidal cell dendrites. In this study, optogenetic stimulation at 0.5 Hz frequency caused shorter and less branched dendrites in rat visual cortex organotypic cultures.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sung Shin Ahn, Hyunjin Yeo, Euitaek Jung, Yoongho Lim, Young Han Lee, Soon Young Shin
Summary: This study identified the molecular mechanisms by which inflammatory cytokines inhibit the expression of FLG in the skin. It was found that the formation of the FRA1:c-JUN:HDAC1 complex is promoted under TNFa + IFNγ stimulation, leading to the downregulation of FLG expression. This insight into the regulatory pathways of FLG expression provides potential therapeutic strategies for restoring skin barrier function in chronic skin inflammation.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Pardis Asgari, Ghraer McKinney, Travis E. Hodgesb, Cheryl M. McCormick
Summary: Adolescent female rats exposed to social instability stress show impaired social behavior and altered neural activation patterns, with higher corticosterone release during social interaction tests. Although there was no difference in anxiety-like behavior, stressed female rats exhibited reduced oxytocin immunoreactivity in the hypothalamus and different immunoreactivity patterns in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus compared to control rats.
Article
Neurosciences
Renata M. Felippe, Gabriel M. Oliveira, Rafaela S. Barbosa, Betina D. Esteves, Beatriz M. S. Gonzaga, Samuel I. M. Horita, Luciana R. Garzoni, Daniela G. Beghini, Tania C. Araujo-Jorge, Viviane M. S. Fragoso
Summary: Aggression is defined as hostile behavior that causes psychological damage, injury, and even death among individuals, and when it presents itself in an exacerbated and constant manner, it can be considered escalating or pathological. The association between social stress and exacerbated aggressiveness is suggested to be interconnected through complex neurobiological factors, such as alterations in dopaminergic receptors, ROS production, and c-Fos protein expression. In mice, exacerbated aggression is linked to social stress, dysregulation of the dopaminergic system, and increased ROS production, leading to cellular oxidative stress. The overexpression of c-Fos due to social stress indicates an attempt by cells to produce antioxidant agents to reduce toxic ROS concentrations.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Maya Jammoul, Dareen Jammoul, Kevin K. Wang, Firas Kobeissy, Ralph G. Depalma
Summary: This article reviews the possible mechanisms by which traumatic brain injury (TBI) may stimulate the development of opioid use disorder (OUD) and discusses the interaction between these two processes. CNS damage due to TBI appears to drive adverse effects of subsequent OUD, with pain being a risk factor for opioid use after TBI.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2024)
Article
Neurosciences
Danusa Mar Arcego, Jan-Paul Buschdorf, Nicholas O'Toole, Zihan Wang, Barbara Barth, Irina Pokhvisneva, Nirmala Arul Rayan, Sachin Patel, Euclides Jose de Mendonca Filho, Patrick Lee, Jennifer Tan, Ming Xuan Koh, Chu Ming Sim, Carine Parent, Randriely Merscher Sobreira de Lima, Andrew Clappison, Kieran J. O'Donnell, Carla Dalmaz, Janine Arloth, Nadine Provencal, Elisabeth B. Binder, Josie Diorio, Patricia Pelufo Silveira, Michael J. Meaney
Summary: This study investigates the impact of environmental influences on mental health by integrating transcriptomic data from animal models with human data. The results suggest that hippocampal glucocorticoid-related transcriptional activity mediates the effects of early adversity on neural mechanisms implicated in psychiatric disorders.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2024)
Article
Neurosciences
Milenna T. van Dijk, Ardesheer Talati, Pratik Kashyap, Karan Desai, Nora C. Kelsall, Marc J. Gameroff, Natalie Aw, Eyal Abraham, Breda Cullen, Jiook Cha, Christoph Anacker, Myrna M. Weissman, Jonathan Posner
Summary: This study found that maternal stress is associated with future depressive symptoms and alterations in microstructure of the dentate gyrus (DG) in offspring. These results were consistent across two independent cohorts.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2024)
Article
Neurosciences
Josephine C. McGowan, Liliana R. Ladner, Claire X. Shubeck, Juliana Tapia, Christina T. LaGamma, Amanda Anqueira-Gonzalez, Ariana DeFrancesco, Briana K. Chen, Holly C. Hunsberger, Ezra J. Sydnor, Ryan W. Logan, Tzong-Shiue Yu, Steven G. Kernie, Christine A. Denny
Summary: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to fear generalization by altering fear memory traces, and this symptom can be improved with (R,S)-ketamine.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2024)