Publication

Dynamic Patterns of Threat-Associated Gene Expression in the Amygdala and Blood

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Last modified
  • 05/21/2025
Type of Material
Authors
    Adriana Lori, Emory UniversityStephanie A. Maddox, McLean HospitalSumeet Sharma, Emory UniversityRaul Andero, Univ Autonoma BarcelonaKerry Ressler, Emory UniversityAlicia Smith, Emory University
Language
  • English
Date
  • 2019-01-17
Publisher
  • Frontiers Media
Publication Version
Copyright Statement
  • © 2019 Lori, Maddox, Sharma, Andero, Ressler and Smith.
License
Final Published Version (URL)
Title of Journal or Parent Work
ISSN
  • 1664-0640
Volume
  • 9
Start Page
  • 778
End Page
  • 778
Grant/Funding Information
  • This research was supported by NARSAD Young Investigator Grants (#19233 and #22434) from the Brain Behavior Foundation.
  • Additional support for RA provided by Ramón y Cajal program RYC2014-15784, RETOS-MINECO SAF2016-76565-R, and FEDER funds.
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Abstract
  • Stress and trauma profoundly influence psychiatric biobehavioral outcomes. The identification of treatment and biomarker targets would be accelerated by a broad understanding of the biological responses to these events. The goal of this study was to determine genes responsive to auditory fear conditioning (FC), a well-characterized amygdala-dependent rodent model of threat-exposure, in the presence or absence of prior stress history, providing insight into the physiological processes underlying response to trauma. RNA-sequencing was performed in blood and amygdala from mice that underwent fear conditioning with (Immo+FC) and without (FC) prior immobilization stress, a paradigm that induces HPA axis, and behavioral stress sensitization. In the amygdala, 607 genes were regulated by FC vs. home-cage (HC) controls, and 516 genes differed in stress-sensitized mice (Immo+FC vs. FC). In the former, we observed an enhancement of specific biological processes involved in learning and synaptic transmission, and in the latter processes associated with cell proliferation and the cellular response to drugs. In the blood of stress-sensitized animals, 468 genes were dynamically regulated when compared to FC, and were enriched for the biological pathways of inflammation and cytokine signaling. This study identified genes and pathways that respond to threat in the amygdala and blood of mice with and without a prior stress history and reveals the impact of stress history on subsequent inflammation. Future studies will be needed to examine the role of these dynamically regulated genes may play in human clinical stress and trauma-related disorders.
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Keywords
Research Categories
  • Psychology, Clinical

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