Several stressors fail to reduce adult hippocampal neurogenesis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Nicola D Hanson, Emory University; Michael J Owens, Emory University; Katherine A Williams, Emory University; Jay M Weiss, Emory University; Charles B Nemeroff, University of Miami
• Language: English
• Date: 2011-11
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.04.006
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Psychoneuroendocrinology
• ISSN: 0306-4530
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 10
• Start Page: 1520
• End Page: 1529
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by NIH MH-42088 and DA-15040 (NDH).; Michael J. Owens, Ph.D., has received research grants from Eli Lilly, Lundbeck A/S, Cyberonics, Ortho-McNeil Janssen, AstraZeneca, and Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma.; Previous support for the development of selectively bred lines was provided by the Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).
• Keywords: stress; Neurogenesis; dentate gyrus; brain-derived neurotrophic factor; tailshock; resident-intruder
• Research Categories: Psychology, Behavioral

Abstract

Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus of adult laboratory animals has been widely reported to be vulnerable to many psychological and physical stressors. However, we have found no effects of acute restraint stress, acute or subchronic tailshock stress, or acute, subchronic, or chronic resident-intruder stress on neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation, short or long term survival of newborn cells, or brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA expression in adult rats. In addition, we did not observe any effect of chronic resident-intruder stress on NPC proliferation in adolescent rats. A selectively bred stress-sensitive line was also found to exhibit no alterations in NPC proliferation following tailshock stress, although this line did exhibit a lower proliferation rate under baseline (unstressed) conditions when compared with non-selected rats. These results challenge the prevailing hypothesis that any stressor of sufficient intensity and duration has a marked negative impact upon the rate of hippocampal neurogenesis, and suggest that some yet unidentified factors related to stress and experimental conditions are crucial in the regulation of neurogenesis.