Sex-Specific Role for SLIT1 in Regulating Stress Susceptibility.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Major depressive disorder is a pervasive and debilitating syndrome characterized by mood disturbances, anhedonia, and alterations in cognition. While the prevalence of major depressive disorder is twice as high for women as men, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that drive sex differences in depression susceptibility.

Methods

We discovered that SLIT1, a secreted protein essential for axonal navigation and molecular guidance during development, is downregulated in the adult ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) of women with depression compared with healthy control subjects, but not in men with depression. This sex-specific downregulation of Slit1 was also observed in the vmPFC of mice exposed to chronic variable stress. To identify a causal, sex-spec

SUBMITTER: van der Zee YY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8390577 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature