Androgen-Dependent Excitability of Mouse Ventral Hippocampal Afferents to Nucleus Accumbens Underlies Sex-Specific Susceptibility to Stress.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Depression affects women nearly twice as often as men, but the neurobiological underpinnings of this discrepancy are unclear. Preclinical studies in male mice suggest that activity of ventral hippocampus (vHPC) neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) regulates mood-related behavioral responses to stress. We sought to characterize this circuit in both sexes and to investigate its role in potential sex differences in models of depression.

Methods

We used male and female adult C57BL/6J mice in the subchronic variable stress model to precipitate female-specific reduction in sucrose preference and performed gonadectomies to test the contributions of gonadal hormones to this stress response. In addition, ex vivo slice electrophysiology of transgenic Cre-induci

SUBMITTER: Williams ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7035179 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature