title: Resilience against predator stress and dendritic morphology of amygdala neurons.
abstract: Individual differences in coping response lie at the core of vulnerability to conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Like humans, not all animals exposed to severe stress show lasting change in affect. Predator stress is a traumatic experience inducing long-lasting fear, but not in all rodents. Thus, individual variation may be a cross species factor driving responsiveness to stressful events. The present study investigated neurobiological bases of variation in coping with severe stress. The amygdala was studied because it modulates fear and its function is affected by stress. Moreover, stress-induced plasticity of the amygdala has been related to induction of anxiety, a comorbid symptom of psychiatric conditions like PTSD. We exposed rodents to predator stress and grouped them according to their adaptability based on a standard anxiety test (the elevated plus maze). Subsequently we investigated if well-adapted (less anxious) and mal-adapted (extremely anxious) stressed animals differed in the structure of dendritic trees of their output neurons of the right basolateral amygdala (BLA). Two weeks after exposure to stress, well-adapted animals showed low anxiety levels comparable to unstressed controls, whereas mal-adapted animals were highly anxious. In these same animals, Golgi analysis revealed that BLA neurons of well-adapted rats exhibited more densely packed and shorter dendrites than neurons of mal-adapted or unstressed control animals, which did not differ. These data suggest that dendritic hypotrophy in the BLA may be a resilience marker against lasting anxiogenic effects of predator stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. rupshi@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Rupshi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mitra
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Adamec
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sapolsky
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000473:pathology*; D002415:Cats; D002452:Cell Count; D003712:Dendrites / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008 Sep;32(7):1287-92
references.pmid: 18550167
references.citation: Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Nov;164(11):1693-9
references.pmid: 17974934
references.citation: Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Aug 15;60(4):376-82
references.pmid: 16919525
references.citation: Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2008 Feb;18(2):107-16
references.pmid: 17611082
references.citation: Am J Psychiatry. 2004 Feb;161(2):195-216
references.pmid: 14754765
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2005;29(8):1225-41
references.pmid: 16099042
references.citation: Physiol Behav. 2005 Sep 15;86(1-2):75-91
references.pmid: 16102787
references.citation: Psychiatry Res. 2006 Jan 30;146(1):59-64
references.pmid: 16361087
references.citation: Synapse. 2008 Aug;62(8):566-73
references.pmid: 18512209
references.citation: Depress Anxiety. 1996-1997;4(3):144-5
references.pmid: 9166644
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2007;31(4):558-84
references.pmid: 17350095
references.citation: Physiol Rev. 2007 Jul;87(3):873-904
references.pmid: 17615391
references.citation: Eur J Neurosci. 2005 Nov;22(9):2332-40
references.pmid: 16262671
references.citation: J Comp Neurol. 2006 Feb 1;494(4):635-50
references.pmid: 16374802
references.citation: Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2008 May;11(3):331-49
references.pmid: 17655807
references.citation: Physiol Behav. 2004 Dec 15;83(3):401-10
references.pmid: 15581662
references.citation: Psychopharmacologia. 1975 Oct 14;44(1):53-9
references.pmid: 1197580
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008 Aug;32(6):1073-86
references.pmid: 18423592
references.citation: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1995 Dec;52(12):1048-60
references.pmid: 7492257
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Jun 28;102(26):9371-6
references.pmid: 15967994
references.citation: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Mar;62(3):273-81
references.pmid: 15753240
references.citation: Mol Psychiatry. 2009 Sep;14(9):847-55, 827
references.pmid: 19204724
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2008 Jun 4;28(23):6037-45
references.pmid: 18524909
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2006 Feb 28;167(2):270-86
references.pmid: 16256211
references.citation: Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2007 Dec;10(6):741-58
references.pmid: 17291374
references.citation: J Psychiatr Res. 2006 Feb;40(1):1-21
references.pmid: 16242154
references.citation: Physiol Behav. 2006 Jun 15;88(1-2):12-29
references.pmid: 16624347
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Apr 8;105(14):5573-8
references.pmid: 18391224
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2001 May;120(2):111-35
references.pmid: 11182161
references.citation: Neuron. 2007 Dec 20;56(6):955-62
references.pmid: 18093519
references.citation: Physiol Behav. 1993 Jul;54(1):101-9
references.pmid: 8327588
references.citation: Depress Anxiety. 2005;21(3):135-9
references.pmid: 15965993
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 24;103(4):1071-6
references.pmid: 16418274
references.citation: Neuropsychopharmacology. 2004 Nov;29(11):1962-70
references.pmid: 15257304
references.citation: FASEB J. 2008 Feb;22(2):401-9
references.pmid: 17785607
references.citation: J Neurobiol. 2006 May;66(6):578-90
references.pmid: 16555234
references.citation: Eur J Pharmacol. 2008 Apr 7;583(2-3):303-11
references.pmid: 18321483
references.citation: Behav Brain Res. 2006 Jun 3;170(1):126-40
references.pmid: 16546269
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2001 Dec;25(7-8):721-44
references.pmid: 11801297
references.citation: Neuroscience. 2005;136(2):445-56
references.pmid: 16226382
references.citation: Am J Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;162(12):2276-86
references.pmid: 16330591
references.citation: Biol Psychiatry. 2003 May 1;53(9):779-88
references.pmid: 12725970
references.citation: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;62(6):593-602
references.pmid: 15939837
references.citation: Psychopharmacologia. 1975 Oct 14;44(1):47-51
references.pmid: 1197579
references.citation: Biol Psychiatry. 2003 Mar 15;53(6):463-73
references.pmid: 12644351
references.citation: Neuropharmacology. 1987 Jul;26(7B):877-86
references.pmid: 2821431
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2007;31(4):530-57
references.pmid: 17270271
references.citation: J Comp Psychol. 1989 Mar;103(1):70-82
references.pmid: 2924531
references.citation: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1998;23(2):301-18
references.pmid: 9884124
references.citation: Neuroscience. 2004;128(4):667-73
references.pmid: 15464275
references.citation: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Feb;62(2):146-52
references.pmid: 15699291
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2002 Aug 1;22(15):6810-8
references.pmid: 12151561
references.citation: Physiol Behav. 1999 Jan 1-15;65(4-5):739-51
references.pmid: 10073475