Chronic social defeat stress leads to changes of behaviour and memory-associated proteins of young mice.
It is well known that social defeat stress can induce depressive behaviours and cognitive impairment. However, the molecular mechanism by which only a minority of stress-exposed individuals are affected is not clear. In this study, thirty 3-week-old male c57BL/6 mice were exposed to 30 days of social defeat stress, following which susceptible (socially avoidant) and unsusceptible (socially interactive) mice were identified using social investigation. Twenty-four hours after the last episode of defeat, separate groups of mice were tested in the sucrose preference, open field, elevated plus-maze and Morris water maze behavioural assays. Also, the levels of memory-associated proteins in the hippocampus were examined, including postsynaptic density 95 (PSD95), postsynaptic density 93 (PSD93), and Protein kinase A (PKA). The levels of PSD95, PSD93, and PKA were significantly lower in susceptible mice. We also found that the upstream regulatory factor of these proteins, phosphorylated Camp-Responsive Element-Binding Protein (CREB), was reduced after social defeat in the susceptible group only, while the level of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) was significantly elevated. These data suggest that memory-associated proteins and phosphorylated CREB may play important roles in memory impairment and behavioural responses to chronic stress.
School of life sciences, Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, Central China Normal university, Wuhan, 430079, China.
Fan
F
Jianhua
School of life sciences, Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, Central China Normal university, Wuhan, 430079, China.
Wei
W
Wei
School of life sciences, Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, Central China Normal university, Wuhan, 430079, China.
Liao
L
Xiaomei
School of life sciences, Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, Central China Normal university, Wuhan, 430079, China. Electronic address: wangsh@mail.ccnu.edu.cn.
Wang
W
Shao-Hui
D000818:Animals; D050882:CREB-Binding Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology*; D000076122:Disks Large Homolog 4 Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D005518:Food Preferences; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D051528:Guanylate Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D000073864:Histone Deacetylase 6 / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D013395:Sucrose
D000076122:Disks Large Homolog 4 Protein; C501447:Dlg4 protein, mouse; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D013395:Sucrose; D050882:CREB-Binding Protein; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases; C501445:Dlg2 protein, mouse; D051528:Guanylate Kinases; D000073864:Histone Deacetylase 6
Animal model; Anxiety; Creb; Depression; Social defeat stress; Spatial memory