Chronic antidepressant treatment induces contrasting patterns of synaptophysin and PSA-NCAM expression in different regions of the adult rat telencephalon

Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2007 Jul;17(8):546-57. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2007.01.001. Epub 2007 Feb 20.

Abstract

Structural modifications occur in the brain of severely depressed patients and they can be reversed by antidepressant treatment. Some of these changes do not occur in the same direction in different regions, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus or the amygdala. Differential structural plasticity also occurs in animal models of depression and it is also prevented by antidepressants. In order to know whether chronic fluoxetine treatment induces differential neuronal structural plasticity in rats, we have analyzed the expression of synaptophysin, a protein considered a marker of synaptic density, and the expression of the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM), a molecule involved in neurite and synaptic remodeling. Chronic fluoxetine treatment increases synaptophysin and PSA-NCAM expression in the medial prefrontal cortex and decreases them in the amygdala. The expression of these molecules is also affected in the entorhinal, the visual and the somatosensory cortices.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amygdala / drug effects
  • Amygdala / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Antidepressive Agents / administration & dosage
  • Antidepressive Agents / pharmacology*
  • Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / pharmacology
  • Fluoxetine / pharmacology
  • Hippocampus / drug effects
  • Hippocampus / metabolism
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Male
  • Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1 / biosynthesis*
  • Neuronal Plasticity / drug effects
  • Neuropil / metabolism
  • Phenotype
  • Prefrontal Cortex / drug effects
  • Prefrontal Cortex / metabolism
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Sialic Acids / biosynthesis*
  • Synaptophysin / biosynthesis*
  • Telencephalon / drug effects
  • Telencephalon / metabolism*

Substances

  • Antidepressive Agents
  • Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation
  • Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1
  • Sialic Acids
  • Synaptophysin
  • polysialyl neural cell adhesion molecule
  • Fluoxetine