Short-hairpin RNA silencing of endogenous fibroblast growth factor 2 in rat hippocampus increases anxiety behavior.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The fibroblast growth factor system has been implicated in the pathophysiology of mood disorders in humans and in affective behavior in animal models. However, the studies have been either correlative or involved exogenous administration of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). None of them have directly linked endogenous FGF2 to changes in emotional responses. Therefore, we began a series of studies to knockdown FGF2 by RNA interference to examine the role of brain FGF2 in emotional responsiveness.

Methods

We assessed the efficacy of short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) sequences targeted to FGF2 in COS7 cells transfected with a plasmid vector containing the full-length FGF2 sequence. We then sought to assess the effects of knocking down FGF2 gene expression in vivo on behavio

SUBMITTER: Eren-Kocak E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3046217 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature