Essential Role of Ovarian Hormones in Susceptibility to the Consequences of Witnessing Social Defeat in Female Rats.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Women are at greater risk than men of developing depression and comorbid disorders such as cardiovascular disease. This enhanced risk begins at puberty and ends following menopause, suggesting a role for ovarian hormones in this sensitivity. Here we used a model of psychosocial witness stress in female rats to determine the stress-induced neurobiological adaptations that underlie stress susceptibility in an ovarian hormone-dependent manner. METHODS:Intact or ovariectomized (OVX) female rats were exposed to five daily 15-minute witness-stress exposures. Witness-stress-evoked burying, behavioral despair, and anhedonia were measured. Cardiovascular telemetry was combined with plasma measurements of inflammation, epinephrine, and corticosterone as indices of cardiovascular dysfuncti

SUBMITTER: Finnell JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6067999 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature