Sex Differences in Nucleus Accumbens Transcriptome Profiles Associated with Susceptibility versus Resilience to Subchronic Variable Stress.
Georgia E HodesMadeline L PfauImmanuel PurushothamanH Francisca AhnSam A GoldenDaniel J ChristoffelJane MagidaAnna BrancatoAki TakahashiMeghan E FlaniganCaroline MénardHossein AleyasinJa Wook KooZachary S LorschJian FengMitra HeshmatiMinghui WangGustavo TureckiRachel NeveBin ZhangLi ShenEric J NestlerScott J RussoPublished in: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (2016)
Women have a higher incidence of depression than men. However, preclinical models, the first step in developing new diagnostics and therapeutics, have been performed mainly on male subjects. Using a stress-based animal model of depression that causes behavioral effects in females but not males, we demonstrate a sex-specific transcriptional profile in brain reward circuitry. This transcriptional profile can be altered by removal of an epigenetic mechanism, which normally suppresses DNA transcription, creating a hybrid male/female transcriptional pattern. Removal of this epigenetic mechanism also induces behavioral resilience to stress in females. These findings shed new light onto molecular factors controlling sex differences in stress response.
Keyphrases
- gene expression
- transcription factor
- dna methylation
- depressive symptoms
- climate change
- stress induced
- social support
- sleep quality
- genome wide
- polycystic ovary syndrome
- heat shock
- single cell
- signaling pathway
- type diabetes
- small molecule
- stem cells
- multiple sclerosis
- white matter
- rna seq
- pregnant women
- bone marrow
- prefrontal cortex
- heat shock protein