The system of neurosteroid synthesis regulates the depressive-like behavior

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24790662
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: General internal medicine (including Psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: Wakayama Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Yuta 和歌山県立医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (00580672)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: うつ様行動 / 小脳 / マイクロアレイ / パスウェイ解析 / 成長ホルモン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Depressive-like behaviors in animals are usually assessed by standardized behavioral tests such as the forced swimming test (FST). However, individual variation in test performance may obscure group differences and thereby hinder the discovery of genes responsible for depression. Few reports have shown the influence of individual variability in identifying the genes associated with depressive-like behaviors. In this study, we conducted microarray analysis to identify genes differentially expressed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and cerebellum of rats stratified by FST immobility ratio into a control group and a depressive group. Eleven genes were differentially expressed in both the cerebellum and PFC of the depressive group. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis identified Gh1 as a hub gene in the networks of differentially expressed genes in both brain regions. This study indicates that the depressive-like behavior may be related to the decrease of Gh1 expression in the cerebellum and PFC.

Free Research Field

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