2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Testing serotonin hypothesis of depression with optogenetics
Project/Area Number |
25713043
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
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Allocation Type | Partial Multi-year Fund |
Research Field |
Psychiatric science
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Research Institution | Hokkaido University |
Principal Investigator |
Ohmura Yu 北海道大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (80597659)
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Research Collaborator |
TANAKA KENJI 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 准教授 (30329700)
YAMANAKA AKIHIRO 名古屋大学, 環境医学研究所, 教授 (60323292)
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Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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Keywords | うつ病 / 光遺伝学 |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
“Serotonin hypothesis of depression” - decreased serotonin levels in the brain cause depression while increased serotonin levels in the brain attenuate depression - has been widely believed. However there is so far no direct evidence proving the relationships between serotonin and depression/depressive symptoms though the hypothesis was proposed in the 1950s. We addressed this issue by using recently-developed optogenetic tools. We used transgenic mice to manipulate serotonergic activity with light illumination. Our results demonstrated that optogenetic activation of serotonergic neurons decreased depressive-like behavior in mice while optogenetic suppression of serotonergic neurons did not affect it.
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Free Research Field |
精神薬理学
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