Ma, Debbie: Differences in Neurogenesis Between Responders and Nonresponders
Title: unknown
Name: Debbie Ma
Major: Biological Sciences
School affiliation: Honors College, School of Arts and Sciences
Programs: Aresty – Research or Conference Funding Recipient, Honors College Capstone
Other contributors: Benjamin Samuel and Gleb Shumyatsky
Abstract: Depression is a complex psychiatric disorder that remains a burden on society today, and further research is necessary to explore the role of the dentate gyrus (DG) in the neural circuitry underlying antidepressant response and whether the DG mediates the response to antidepressants. To do this, we assessed possible interactions between dividing cells in the DG, adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and behavioral response to chronic antidepressant treatment. Subsequent to chronic corticosterone (CORT) administration in males and social instability in females to mimic chronic stress, mice were chronically exposed to antidepressant monotherapies with fluoxetine (FLX). Behavioral response to the antidepressant was assessed using the Novelty Suppressed Feeding (NSF) task, which permits stratification into responders and non-responders to antidepressant treatment. Following initial exposure to the NSF test, mice were sacrificed and perfused to assess DG mitotic cell division and adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Preliminary data indicates that behavioral antidepressant response correlates with an indirect relationship between DG mitotic cell division and hippocampal neurogenesis where responders have more mitotic cell division and hippocampal neurogenesis than non-responders to antidepressant treatment.