Impaired fear extinction as displayed by serotonin transporter knockout rats housed in open cages is disrupted by IVC cage housing.

ABSTRACT: Anxiety disorders are influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. A well-known example for gene x environment interactions in psychiatry is the low activity (s) allelic variant of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) that in the context of stress increases risk for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previously, we observed robust anxiety-related phenotypes, such as an impairment in fear extinction, in 5-HTT knockout (5-HTT-/-) versus wild-type (5-HTT+/+) rats housed in open cages. Recently, housing conditions were changed from open cages to individually ventilated cages (IVC), which are associated with a high ventilation fold and noise. This switch in housing conditions prompted an unplanned 5-HTT gene x environment interaction stu

SUBMITTER: Shan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3962352 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature