title: Anxiety-Related Behaviours Associated with microRNA-206-3p and BDNF Expression in Pregnant Female Mice Following Psychological Social Stress.
abstract: Stress during pregnancy can induce various psychological disorders in women. However, the association linking psychological stress during pregnancy with abnormal behaviours in females remains largely unknown. We employed a novel psychological stress model by introducing pregnant mice to witness the defeat process of their mated partner (WDPMP) and examined the effects of WDPMP on depression-/anxiety-like behaviours and on the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and miR-206-3p in the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and amygdala. Compared to pregnant control (PC) mice, pregnant stressed (PS) mice showed decreased sucrose preference during the late period of gestation, and after lactation, they spent less time in the open arms of the elevated plus maze and in the light chamber of the light/dark box. After lactation, decreased BDNF expression in both the hippocampus and mPFC of PS mice was found to be associated with enhanced miR-206-3p levels; meanwhile, elevated BDNF associated with decreased miR-206-3p expression was evident in the amygdala of the same PS mice. DNA methylation level in the Bdnf promoter did not show difference between PC and PS mice in the hippocampus. Transfection of miR-206-3p resulted in decreased BDNF levels in vitro. These results suggest that WDPMP stress during gestation can induce long-term mood alterations in pregnant mice, which may correlate with changes in miR-206-3p and BDNF expression in the hippocampus, mPFC and amygdala.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.|University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Zhuang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.|University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Fengbiao
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.|University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Jialong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, H3G 1Y6, Canada.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szyf
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China. wangy@biols.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China. sunzs@biols.ac.cn.|University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. sunzs@biols.ac.cn.|Institute of Genomic Medicine, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, 325000, China. sunzs@biols.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhong Sheng
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D035683:MicroRNAs; C540669:Mirn206 microRNA, mouse
keywords: Anxiety; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Psychological stress; Social defeat; miR-206-3p