Sex differences in resilience at puberty depend upon divergent effects of a stress steroid at α4βδ GABA_A receptors.

ABSTRACT: Resilience is a critical skill that lessens the adverse effects of stress which are increasingly reported in adolescents, where sex differences are noted. It is not known how this process develops in adolescence when unique changes in neuronal properties occur. For this study, pubertal mice were tested for their coping ability following 2-week restraint. We show here that this predictable stress produced resilience in pubertal female mice where time immobile in the forced swim test (FST) decreased by ∼50 % (P < 0.0001), an effect that extended into adulthood, and increased escape behavior 8-fold (P = 0.01). This effect was not seen in pubertal male or adult female mice. This process required the stress steroid 3α-OH,5α-pregnan-20-one (THP, allopregnanolone) and its primary target, α4βδ GAB

SUBMITTER: Kenney LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12445324 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature