Early life and adult stress promote sex dependent changes in hypothalamic miRNAs and environmental enrichment prevents stress-induced miRNA and gene expression changes in rats.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The hypothalamus plays a key role in the stress response. While early life stress (ELS) increases susceptibility to psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder (MDD), acute stress during adulthood can also precipitate MDD after ELS.

Aim

Here, we tested the expression of miRNAs following ELS and susceptibility to depression-like behavior and whether sex or acute stress exacerbates this response. We also tested whether environmental enrichment (Enr) promotes early life and adult behavioral stress resilience and its effect on hypothalamic miRNA and gene expression. Following rat maternal separation (MS) as an ELS model, Enr from weaning through adulthood, and restraint (RS) as acute adult stress, we tested both animal behavior and miRNA expression in th

SUBMITTER: McKibben LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8480023 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature