Skip to main content

Week 2: Neurogenesis and Anti-depressant actions response

By

The two articles selected this week, Santarelli et al. (2003) and Bessa et al. (2009), investigated neurogenesis in the hippocampus with administration of anti-depressants (ADs) and how it might affect the alleviation of behaviors associated with depression. Upon first glance, the articles seem to contradict each other. But with a more thorough read-through of the papers and an understanding that as time goes on, more discoveries are made within the neuroscience community. Santarelli et. al seems to be a necessary precursor to Bessa et al. in developing a deeper understanding of ADs.

In Santarelli et al., mice were subjected to a novelty-suppressed feeding task in order to study how ADs effect neurogenesis. This article discovered that disrupting the neurogenesis induced by ADs through use of radiation blocked the behavioral response to the ADs. The major finding of the paper was that the behavioral effects of ADs might be the result of stimulation of neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Bessa et al. takes this research in a different direction. It refutes the claim that neurogenesis in the hippocampus is reason for the amelioration of depressive symptoms with the use of ADs and instead takes the approach that neural plasticity is responsible for the amelioration of depressive symptoms. Bessa et al. also performs behavioral tasks on mice but with a more all-encompassing approach. This article uses a novelty-suppressed feeding task, a sucrose preference task, and a forced swimming task to assess the effects that ADs have rather than just the novelty-suppressed feeding task from Santarelli et al. paper. The takeaway from Bessa et al. was that ADs retain their therapeutic properties even with neurogenesis is blocked.

So although Bessa et al. rejects the claim that neurogenesis in the hippocampus with AD use is reason from the alleviation of behaviors associated with depression, it relies on previous research being done in this area to get to its new conclusion that neuroplasticity in the hippocampus with AD use is reason from the alleviation of behaviors associated with depression.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gut-Brain Interactions: Buffington et al, Reber et al 2016

By
April 13 Papers (Buffington et. al, Reber et. al) I found this week’s papers to be quite novel in that they both proposed potential treatments for neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders that target bacterial or microbial abnormalities and how these give rise to certain behavioral and physical symptoms associated with the disorders. I thought this was a very unusual yet interesting approach, and as I have not previously studied the gut-brain axis, these papers offered me a fresh perspective on researching psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. They were also unconventional in their focus of the physical symptoms that often accompany mental disorders, as this is not something that I have seen many other papers touch upon very much. Particularly, I was surprised by the Reber et al paper’s focus on the link between psychiatric disorders and inflammation in organs other than the brain, such as the colon, and the Buffington et al paper’s description of a relationship between ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Buffington et al. and Reber et al.: Gut-Brain Interactions

By
While I have not encountered a lot of gut-brain interaction literature yet. I found each paper unique and fascinating. Reber et al felt inaccessible for me. I felt like I didn’t understand what the goal of the paper really was and why they did the tests that they did. It seems like most of their relevant information got shoved into numerous supplementary figures and their behavior was quite difficult to follow. Multiple sections of their paper were supported with data found entirely in supplementary figures, which makes it difficult to follow the same conclusions. I have a few issues with the behavior they chose and because of this, I struggle to find driving conclusions from their work. I don’t understand why the CSC was not only the prior stressor but was also the acute stress condition both groups faced. To me, I feel like it would have made more sense to have the CSC be the prior stressor and then judge the effect on social behavior with maybe a three choice chamber test or te...
Post a Comment
Read more

Buffington et al (2016) and Reber et al. (2016)

By
This week's articles were about the role of the gut-brain axis in neurodevelopment and stress. Reber and colleagues used a heat-killed version of the bacteria, M. vaccae, as a type of vaccine and found that administration to mouse models resulted in decreased response to chronic stress, prevented colitis related to stress, and reduced measures of anxiety. Reber et al. also used the inactivated M. vaccae in a mouse model of IBD and found that the bacteria prevented stress-induce flare-ups of colitis, but that this could be reversed by removing T cells. Buffington and colleagues instead examined the role of gut microbiota in maternal high-fat diets (MHFD) in the neurodevelopment and social behaviors of their offspring. Buffington et al. found that housing MHFD rats with the offspring of regular diet (MRD) rats prevented social deficits in their offspring. They also found that this co-housing arrangement prevented an imbalance in the gut bacteria Reber and colleagues' findings w...
Post a Comment
Read more