Hypothalamic vasopressin systems are more sensitive to the long term effects of social defeat in males versus females.

ABSTRACT: Vasopressin signaling has important effects on the regulation of social behaviors and stress responses, and is considered a promising pathway to target for new therapeutics of stress-induced psychiatric disorders. Although there is evidence for sex differences in the behavioral effects of arginine vasopressin (AVP), few data have directly compared the effects of stress on endogenous AVP signaling in males and females. We used California mice (Peromyscus californicus) to study the short and long term effects of social defeat stress on AVP immunoreactive cells in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the posteromedial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTmp). Acute exposure to defeat increased AVP/c-fos cells in the PVN and SON of both males and females. In contrast, there were sex diffe

SUBMITTER: Steinman MQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4268083 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature