No abstract

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of certain mood disorders, including depression and anxiety. It is, however, not known which of the five cloned NPY receptors mediate these functions. We investigated the effect of Y2 receptor deletion on anxiety and stress-related behaviours. In the elevated plus maze, Y2 knock out (Y2(-/-)) mice showed a 2.7-fold higher frequency of entering into, and spent 3.8 times more time within, the open arms compared to controls, while entries into the closed arms did not differ. Similarly Y2(-/-) mice entered the central area of the open field 1.7 times more frequently and also spent 1.8 times more time there. In the light/dark test Y2(-/-) mice had a 4.8-fold lower latency to enter the lit area but stayed there 2.6 times longer than control mice. Y2(-/-) mice displayed 3.2-fold less immobility in the forced swim test, indicating improved stress coping ability. Y2 receptors are predominantly located presynaptically where they mediate feedback inhibition of neurotransmitter release. Deletion of these receptors may result in enhanced release of NPY, GABA and/or glutamate in brain areas linked to the manifestation of anxiety, and stress-related behaviour such as the amygdala. Taken together, deletion of the Y2 receptor has revealed an important role of Y2 receptors in the generation of anxiety-related and stress-related behaviours in mice.

No abstract

Genetic background may influence an individual's susceptibility to, and subsequent coping strategy for, an acute stressor. When exposed to social defeat (SD), rats bred for high (HAB) or low (LAB) trait anxiety, which also differ in depression-like behavior, showed highly divergent passive and active coping behaviors, respectively. HABs spent more time freezing and emitted more ultrasound vocalization calls during SD than LABs, which spent more time rearing and grooming. Although the behavioral data confirmed the prediction that heightened trait anxiety would make rats more prone to experience stress, adrenocorticotropin and corticosterone were secreted to a higher extent in LABs than in HABs. In the latter, Fos expression upon SD was enhanced in the amygdala and hypothalamic areas compared with LABs, whereas it was diminished in prefrontal and brainstem areas.

There is evidence for a disturbed perception and processing of emotional information in pathological anxiety. Using a rat model of trait anxiety generated by selective breeding, we previously revealed differences in challenge-induced neuronal activation in fear/anxiety-related brain areas between high (HAB) and low (LAB) anxiety rats. To confirm whether findings generalize to other species, we used the corresponding HAB/LAB mouse model and investigated c-Fos responses to elevated open arm exposure. Moreover, for the first time we included normal anxiety mice (NAB) for comparison. The results confirm that HAB mice show hyperanxious behavior compared to their LAB counterparts, with NAB mice displaying an intermediate anxiety phenotype. Open arm challenge revealed altered c-Fos response in prefrontal-cortical, limbic and hypothalamic areas in HAB mice as compared to LAB mice, and this was similar to the differences observed previously in the HAB/LAB rat lines. In mice, however, additional differential c-Fos response was observed in subregions of the amygdala, hypothalamus, nucleus accumbens, midbrain and pons. Most of these differences were also seen between HAB and NAB mice, indicating that it is predominately the HAB line showing altered neuronal processing. Hypothalamic hypoactivation detected in LAB versus NAB mice may be associated with their low-anxiety/high-novelty-seeking phenotype. The detection of similarly disturbed activation patterns in a key set of anxiety-related brain areas in two independent models reflecting psychopathological states of trait anxiety confirms the notion that the altered brain activation in HAB animals is indeed characteristic of enhanced (pathological) anxiety, providing information for potential targets of therapeutic intervention.