Reactivation of Tert in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus rescues aggression and depression of Tert(-/-) mice.

ABSTRACT: The role of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) has been extensively investigated in the contexts of aging and cancer. Interestingly, Tert(-/-) mice exhibit additional but unexpected aggressive and depressive behaviors, implying the potential involvement of TERT function in mood control. Our conditional rescue experiments revealed that the depressive and aggressive behaviors of Tert(-/-) mice originate from Tert deficiency in two distinct brain structures. Reactivation of Tert in the hippocampus was sufficient to normalize the depressive but not the aggressive behaviors of Tert(-/-) mice. Conversely, re-expression of Tert in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) reversed the aggressive but not the depressive behavior of Tert(-/-) mice. Mechanistically, decreased serotonergic signaling an

SUBMITTER: Zhou QG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4931604 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature