Lack of effect of acute, subchronic, or chronic stress on glycogen synthase kinase-3beta protein levels in rat frontal cortex.
Glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3beta is a conserved serine/threonine protein kinase highly abundant in brain tissue. A dominant mechanism by which cells react to stress involves GSK-3beta. We studied the effect of stress on GSK-3beta levels ex vivo. We have previously found reduced GSK-3beta protein levels and GSK-3 activity in postmortem prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients. Since schizophrenic patients experience stress more severely than healthy people, we questioned whether their GSK-3beta reduction is stress-related using a rat model. Rats were exposed to acute, subchronic, or chronic stress using brief cold restraint. No effect was found on frontal cortex GSK-3beta protein levels. These results suggest that reduction in GSK-3beta levels in schizophrenic patients is not affected by cold restraint stress and supports the possibility that the changes observed in postmortem brains may be related to the disease.
Kozlovsky
Nitsan
N
Stanley Research Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel.
Belmaker
Robert H
RH
Agam
Galila
G
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D038362:Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 / Q000032:analysis*; D000071679:Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*
D000071679:Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta; C000605508:Gsk3b protein, rat; D038362:Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3