Visualizing traumatic stress-induced structural plasticity in a medial amygdala pathway using mGRASP.

ABSTRACT: Traumatic stress has been shown to contribute to persistent behavioral changes, yet the underlying neural pathways are not fully explored. Structural plasticity, a form of long-lasting neural adaptability, offers a plausible mechanism. To scrutinize this, we used the mGRASP imaging technique to visualize synaptic modifications in a pathway formed between neurons of the posterior ventral segment of the medial amygdala and ventrolateral segment of the ventromedial hypothalamus (MeApv-VmHvl), areas we previously showed to be involved in stress-induced excessive aggression. We subjected mice (7-8 weeks of age) to acute stress through foot shocks, a reliable and reproducible form of traumatic stress, and compared synaptic changes to control animals. Our data revealed an increase in synapse form

SUBMITTER: Bartsch CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10720331 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature