Sex differences in pre- and post-synaptic glutamate signaling in the nucleus accumbens core.
Biol Sex Differ
; 14(1): 52, 2023 08 18.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37596655
Understanding normal neural signaling within the nucleus accumbens, a key brain region involved in psychiatric disease including substance use disorder and depression, could provide insight into treatment options for these disorders. Although we know the behaviors regulated by the nucleus accumbens can differ between males and females, we do not understand the underlying differences in brain processing that could contribute to these behavioral differences. Further, even in cases when these behaviors are not different, the underlying brain signaling may exhibit sex-specific mechanisms. The current studies examined excitatory signaling with the nucleus accumbens in both rats and mice at the level of both individual cells and circuits. We found that female rodents (rats and mice) exhibit higher levels of excitatory signaling within the nucleus accumbens than male rodents. Further, procedures that can dampen neural transmission in males are not sufficient to do so in females, suggesting that excitatory signaling in the nucleus accumbens of females is less plastic. Finally, our last set of studies utilized mice missing the protein, PKMζ, and demonstrated that this reversed some of the sex differences seen in normal mice, pointing to a critical role for this protein in maintaining these differences. Our data suggest there are sex differences at multiple levels in this region that should be considered in the development of pharmacotherapies to treat psychiatric illnesses such as depression and substance use disorder.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Glutamic Acid
/
Nucleus Accumbens
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Biol Sex Differ
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States
Country of publication:
United kingdom