Antidepressant responsiveness in adulthood is permanently impaired after neonatal destruction of the neurogenic pool.

ABSTRACT: The dynamic turnover of hippocampal neurons is implicated in the regulation of cognitive and affective behavior. Extending our previous demonstration that administration of dexamethasone (ND) to neonatal rats depletes the resident population of neural precursor cells (NPC) and restrains the size of the neurogenic regions, we now show that the adverse effects of ND persist into adulthood. Specifically, ND impairs repletion of the neurogenic pool and neurogenesis; ND also compromises cognitive performance, the ability to actively adapt to an acute stressor and, the efficacy of glucocorticoid (GC) negative feedback. Interestingly, although ND depletes the neurogenic pool, it does not permanently abolish the proliferative machinery of the residual NPC population; however, ND increases the susc

SUBMITTER: Yu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5545723 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature