Reduction of serotonergic gene expression in the raphe nuclei of the midbrain under positive fighting experience in male mice

Abstract

The concept of a major inhibitory role of serotonin in aggressive behavior is widely accepted by investigators. There was ample evidence that a pharmacologically-induced increase in the serotonin activity attenuates agonistic behavior in animals, and that the manipulations inhibiting the brain serotonergic system can elicit aggressiveness in male mice and rats.

Abnormal social behaviors and dysfunction of autism-related genes associated with daily agonistic interactions in mice

“…We have previously conducted studies of gene expression in males in similar experiments using the RT-PCR method with larger samples for each compared experimental group, i.e., winners and losers (> 10 animals). The direction and extent of changes in expressions of the Tph2, Slc6a4, Bdnf, Creb1, and Gapdh genes in the midbrain raphe nuclei of males compared with the control produced by two methods, including RT-PCR [41,42] and RNA-Seq, are generally consistent. This finding suggests that the transcriptome analyses of the data provided by the Company Genoanalitika (http://genoanalytica.ru, Moscow) have been verified, and this method reflects the actual processes that occur in the brain under our experimental paradigm.…”

Aberrant expression of collagen family genes in the brain regions developing under agonistic interactions in male mice

“…We have previously conducted studies of gene expression in males in similar experiments using the RT-PCR method with larger number of samples for each compared experimental group, i.e., winners and losers (> 10 animals). The direction and extent of changes in expressions of the Tph2, Slc6a4, Bdnf, Creb1, and Gapdh genes in the midbrain raphe nuclei of males compared with the control produced by two methods, including RT-PCR [Smagin et al 2013;Boyarskikh et al 2013] and RNA-Seq , are generally consistent. In order to cross-validate the our results obtained, we employed the unique resource from Barres Lab, Stanford University, USA [Zhang et al 2014] and found highly concordant with our RNA-Seq data pool ].…”

“…The midbrain raphe nuclei contain the bodies of serotonergic neurons which are involved in the regulation of many physiological, behavioral, and emotional processes. Repeated experience of aggression and defeats is accompanied by the decrease of serotonergic activity [Kudryavtseva 2006;Avgustinovich et al 2004], which is accompanied by decreased expression of serotonergic genes -Tph2, Maoa, Slc6a4, Htr's Smagin et al 2013;Kudryavtseva et al 2017] in this brain region.…”

“…It was established that under chronic social defeat stress the adult brain undergoes numerous molecular and cellular changes [Kudryavtseva et al 2004;Berton et al 2006;Boyarskikh et al 2013]. Analyzing the whole transcriptome in brain of depressive mice, we have found changes in the expression of serotonergic [Smagin et al 2013;, dopaminergic [Kovalenko et al 2016], glutamatergic and GABAergic ] genes as well as ribosomal and mitoribosomal genes [Smagin et al 2016a;Smagin et al 2016b] in different brain regions. Changes in DNA methylation, histone acetylation and chromatin remodeling often accompany these changes [Hollis et al 2010;Kenworthy et al 2014], as well as decreases in hippocampal neurogenesis rates [Ferragud et al 2010;Lagace et al 2010;Van Bokhoven et al 2011] in defeated mice.…”

“…Changes in DNA methylation, histone acetylation and chromatin remodeling often accompany these changes [Hollis et al 2010;Kenworthy et al 2014], as well as decreases in hippocampal neurogenesis rates [Ferragud et al 2010;Lagace et al 2010;Van Bokhoven et al 2011] in defeated mice. We found changes in activity of monoaminergic gene expression in brain regions, activation of cell proliferations in the hippocampus, as well as growth of new neurons under repeated experience of aggression in male mice [Kudryavtseva et al 2004;Filipenko et al 2001;Smagin et al 2013;Smagin et al 2015;Kudryavtseva et al 2017]. Using the transcriptome analysis on RNA-seq data this report is aimed to study the changes of the collagen family gene expression in the 5 brain regions of the male mice with alternative social experience in daily agonistic interactions over a 20-day period.…”