Brief reportIncreased Arginine Vasopressin mRNA Expression in the Human Hypothalamus in Depression: A Preliminary Report
Section snippets
Subjects
Hypothalami of nine depressed subjects and eight control subjects matched for age and gender (Table 1) were obtained from the Netherlands Brain Bank, in accordance with the formal protocols for use of human brain material and clinical information for research purposes. The MD patients were diagnosed during their lifetime, and the diagnosis was confirmed by a board-certified psychiatrist (WJGH) retrospectively using the medical record, according to DSM-IV criteria, paying special attention to
Results
The arginine vasopressin mRNA signal in the SON of depressed subjects was 60% higher than in control subjects (Z = −2.3, p = .021; Figure 1). In the PVN, the signal in the depressed group was 15% higher than in control subjects, but this difference was not significant (Z = −1.3, p = .21; Figure 2). Leaving out two patients who suffered from a cerebrovascular accident, leaving out the patient and control subject who used prednisone, and leaving out the DDNOS patient had no effect on the outcome.
Discussion
This is the first report in which AVP mRNA has been quantified in the SON and the PVN in depressed and control subjects. We found a significant (60%) increase in the amount of AVP mRNA signal in the SON of depressed subjects (Figure 1). We also expected to find an increase in AVP expression in the PVN, which would have been in line with our earlier finding of an increased number of AVP-immunoreactive neurons in the PVN in depression (Purba et al 1996), but the rise we observed in the PVN was
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