Sex differences in response to chronic mild stress and congenital serotonin deficiency.

ABSTRACT: Women exhibit a nearly twofold increased risk of developing depression and anxiety disorders when compared to men, a fact that has been hypothesized to result in part from increased stress susceptibility. Here, we used the tryptophan hydroxylase-2 R439H knock-in mouse (Tph2KI) and the chronic unpredictable mild stress (CMS) model to examine sex differences in response to congenital 5-HT deficiency and chronic stress. Our results demonstrate that female mice, but not 5-HT-deficient animals, exhibit significantly increased susceptibility to CMS-induced despair-like behavior in the forced swim test. In addition, female 5-HT-deficient mice exhibit anhedonia-like behavior in the sucrose preference test, whereas male 5-HT-deficient animals do not, suggesting that females exhibit increased sensit

SUBMITTER: Sachs BD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3918518 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature