Streptozotocin diabetic mice display depressive-like behavior and alterations in the structure, neurotransmission and plasticity of medial prefrontal cortex interneurons.

Streptozotocin diabetic mice display depressive-like behavior and alterations in the structure, neurotransmission and plasticity of medial prefrontal cortex interneurons. Brain Res Bull. 2015 Jun 22; Authors: Castillo-Gómez E, Coviello S, Perez-Rando M, Curto Y, Carceller H, Salvador A, Nacher J Abstract Diabetes mellitus patients are at increased risk of developing depression, although the neurobiological bases of this comorbidity are not yet fully understood. These patients show CNS alterations, similar to those found in major depression, including changes in the structure and neurotransmission of excitatory neurons. However, although depressive patients and animal models also display alterations in inhibitory networks, little is known about the effects of diabetes on interneurons. Our main objective was to study the impact of diabetes on interneurons of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), one of the regions most affected by major depression. For this purpose we have induced diabetes with high-dose streptozotozin in transgenic mice displaying fluorescent interneurons. These animals showed a depressive-like behavior (increased immobility time in tail suspension test) in parallel with reductions in interneuronal dendritic arborization and in the expression of GAD67, the enzyme that synthetizes the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. However, the levels of PSA-NCAM, a plasticity-related molecule exclusively expressed by interneurons i...
Source: Brain Research Bulletin - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Bull Source Type: research