Chronic corticosterone administration effects on behavioral emotionality in female c57bl6 mice.

Abstract

Understanding the pathophysiology of affective disorders and their treatment relies on the availability of experimental models that mimic aspects of the disease. Most of the studies on depressive disorders are conducted with male rodents, mostly because including females in protocols is more difficult. Indeed, there is a complex series of changes in the brain of females due to the estrous cycle, adding an important variability factor to the disease. However, twice as many women as men have a lifetime diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD), so we need to develop reliable female models of depression to improve our understanding of this disease. Here, we describe the effects of chronic corticosterone administration (CORT) on female mice, a procedure known to enhance behavioral emotionality in male mice. A dose-response study showed that 4 weeks of CORT exposure at 35 μg/ml in the drinking water enhanced the emotionality score of female mice, but with a very small size effect. Tests of longer treatment duration failed to potentiate the behavioral effects of CORT. As some steps of adult hippocampal neurogenesis are known to be sensitive to chronic CORT exposure, cell proliferation and survival, as well as neuronal maturation in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, analyses revealed no effect of chronic CORT exposure in female mice. Overall, this study showed that female C57BL6 mice are insensitive to chronic CORT as a way to model anxio-depressive-like behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

Corticosteroid-induced dendrite loss and behavioral deficiencies can be blocked by activation of Abl2/Arg kinase

“…Also, sucrose consumption patterns could not be attributable to estrous phase at test [phase F (3,25) = 0.39, p = 0.76] (Fig. 5g), in agreement with a recent report using other estrous assessment approaches (Mekiri et al, 2017). …”

“…Prior low-dose CORT decreased sucrose consumption in females, an anhedonic-like consequence (see also Mekiri et al, 2017). Meanwhile, DPH increased consumption, an anti-depressant-like effect [interaction F (1,25) = 10.6, p = 0.003] (Fig.…”

“…We also tested sucrose consumption in CORT-exposed female mice. As in CORT-exposed males (Gourley et al, 2013; Gourley et al, 2008), CORT exposed females consumed less sucrose, which is thought to model anhedonia in humans (see also Mekiri et al, 2017). A key next step in these experiments is to determine whether DPH corrects anhedonic-like behavior or decision-making abnormalities following stressor exposure.…”

S 47445 Produces Antidepressant- and Anxiolytic-Like Effects through Neurogenesis Dependent and Independent Mechanisms

“…The score results from the sum of the score of five different body parts: head, neck, dorsal/ventral coat, tail and fore-/hind paws. For each body part, a score of 0 was given for good state (smooth fur), 1 for moderate degradation (fur with some spiky patches) and 2 for unkempt coat (bad fur) (Mekiri et al, 2017). …”

Prophylactic efficacy of 5-HT4R agonists against stress

“…Nonetheless, we show that RS-67,333 is an ineffective prophylactic in female 129S6/SvEv mice at the varying doses administered. Prophylactic efficacy of has shown that female C57BL/6NTac mice are insensitive to chronic CORT [46]. Future studies are necessary to determine the sex-and dose-specific effects of prophylactic compounds, as twice as many women as men have a lifetime diagnosis of MDD [47].…”