High susceptibility to chronic social stress is associated with a depression-like phenotype.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
; 35(5): 635-43, 2010 Jun.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19857931
ABSTRACT
Chronic stress is a key risk factor for a variety of diseases, including depression. There is a large degree of individual variation in the ability to recover successfully from a chronic stress exposure, but the determinants of this individual stress susceptibility are still poorly understood. We recently developed a novel mouse paradigm for chronic social stress during adolescence, which closely mimics the human condition of chronic social stress in respect to construct, face and predictive validity. By applying this chronic stress model to a large number of animals we aimed at identifying individuals that are either resilient or vulnerable to the persistent effects of chronic social stress exposure. Animals showing markedly elevated basal corticosterone levels 5 weeks following the end of the stress paradigm were considered "vulnerable", whereas individuals recovering quickly and being indistinguishable from controls were classified as "resilient". Stress vulnerability was associated with an increased level of corticotropin-releasing hormone in the paraventricular nucleus, decreased hippocampal mineralocorticoid receptor expression as well as increased anxiety- and depression-like behavior compared to resilient and control animals. In summary, we show that by using a large cohort of animals it is possible to select individuals that are vulnerable or resilient to the lasting effects of chronic social stress. The vulnerable phenotype mimics many aspects of stress-related human affective disorders and this may be used as a novel approach to study depression in an animal model, ultimately contributing to a better understanding and treatment of stress-related disorders.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Conducta Social
/
Estrés Psicológico
/
Encéfalo
/
Corticosterona
/
Depresión
/
Modelos Animales de Enfermedad
/
Susceptibilidad a Enfermedades
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspecto:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Límite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Año:
2010
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Alemania