Medial preoptic CCKAR mediates anxiety and aggression induced by chronic emotional stress in male mice.

ABSTRACT: Anxiety disorders frequently accompany aggression, with their co-occurrence predicting greater functional impairment and poor prognosis. Nevertheless, the underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive, primarily due to a lack of appropriate animal models. Here, we designed a chronic conspecific outsider stress (CCS) model in which male mice underwent perceived social threats and exhibited increased anxiety-like behaviors accompanied by aggression. CCS led to Fos activation and hyperexcitability of GABAergic neurons in the medial preoptic area (mPOA). Inhibition of mPOA GABAergic (mPOA^Gad2) neurons rescued CCS-induced anxiety-like and aggressive behaviors, whereas activating these cells induced susceptibility to CCS. Moreover, CCS upregulated the mRNA and protein expression

SUBMITTER: Tang MY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12418936 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature