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Chronic Mild Stress Increases the Expression of Genes Encoding Proinflammatory Cytokines in the Rat Brain

  • Animal and Human Physiology
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Abstract

Alterations in the expression of genes encoding interleukins IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were studied in the rat brain in a model of a depressive disorder. We found that the signs of a depressionlike condition in rats, subjected to eight weeks of chronic mild unpredictable stress, were accompanied by increased IL-1α and IL-1β mRNAs levels in the neocortex, hippocampus, and brainstem and a decreased IL-6 mRNA level in the brainstem as compared to those observed in the control animals. We did not find any changes in the level of TNF-α mRNA. We suggest that region-specific alterations in the expression of cytokine genes, specifically, the most prominent increase in IL-1β expression, reflects greater vulnerability of chronically stressed animals to neuroinflammatory processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 117485, Russia

    M. Yu. Stepanichev, A. O. Manolova, N. A. Lazareva, M. V. Onufriev & N. V. Gulyaeva

  2. Research Institute on Addictions, Division of Serbskii Federal Medical Research Center on Psychiatry and Addiction, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 119002, Russia

    D. I. Peregud

  3. Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Neuropsychiatry, Moscow Department of Healthcare, Moscow, 115419, Russia

    M. V. Onufriev & N. V. Gulyaeva

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  1. M. Yu. Stepanichev
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  2. D. I. Peregud
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  3. A. O. Manolova
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  4. N. A. Lazareva
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  5. M. V. Onufriev
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  6. N. V. Gulyaeva
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Correspondence to M. Yu. Stepanichev.

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Original Russian Text © M.Yu. Stepanichev, D.I. Peregud, A.O. Manolova, N.A. Lazareva, M.V. Onufriev, N.V. Gulyaeva, 2018, published in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Biologicheskaya, 2018, No. 2, pp. 209–215.

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Stepanichev, M.Y., Peregud, D.I., Manolova, A.O. et al. Chronic Mild Stress Increases the Expression of Genes Encoding Proinflammatory Cytokines in the Rat Brain. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 45, 186–191 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359018010107

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