Devall, AJ;
Santos, JM;
Fry, JP;
Honour, JW;
Brandão, ML;
Lovick, TA;
(2015)
Elevation of brain allopregnanolone rather than 5-HT release by short term, low dose fluoxetine treatment prevents the estrous cycle-linked increase in stress sensitivity in female rats.
European Neuropsychopharmacology
, 25
(1)
pp. 113-123.
10.1016/j.euroneuro.2014.11.017.
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Abstract
Withdrawal from long-term dosing with exogenous progesterone precipitates increased anxiety-linked changes in behavior in animal models due to the abrupt decrease in brain concentration of allopregnanolone (ALLO), a neuroactive metabolite of progesterone. We show that a withdrawal-like effect also occurs during the late diestrus phase (LD) of the natural ovarian cycle in rats, when plasma progesterone and ALLO are declining but estrogen secretion maintains a stable low level. This effect at LD was prevented by short-term treatment with low dose fluoxetine. During LD, but not at other stages of the estrous cycle, exposure to anxiogenic stress induced by whole body vibration at 4 Hz for 5 min evoked a significant decrease in tail flick latency (stress-induced hyperalgesia) and a decrease in the number of Fos-positive neurons present in the periaqueductal gray (PAG). The threshold to evoke fear-like behaviors in response to electrical stimulation of the dorsal PAG was lower in the LD phase, indicating an increase in the intrinsic excitability of the PAG circuitry. All these effects were blocked by short-term administration of fluoxetine (2 × 1.75 mg kg(-1) i.p.) during LD. This dosage increased the whole brain concentration of ALLO, as determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, but was without effect on the extracellular concentration of 5-HT in the dorsal PAG, as measured by microdialysis. We suggest that fluoxetine-induced rise in brain ALLO concentration during LD offsets the sharp physiological decline, thus removing the trigger for the development of anxiogenic withdrawal effects.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Elevation of brain allopregnanolone rather than 5-HT release by short term, low dose fluoxetine treatment prevents the estrous cycle-linked increase in stress sensitivity in female rats |
| Location: | Netherlands |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2014.11.017 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2014.11.017 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2015. This manuscript version is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. |
| Keywords: | Allopregnanolone, Anxiety, Estrous cycle, Fluoxetine, Periaqueductal grey matter, c-fos, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation, Arabidopsis Proteins, Brain, Brain Chemistry, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Electric Stimulation, Escape Reaction, Estrous Cycle, Female, Fluoxetine, Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic, Hyperalgesia, Nuclear Proteins, Periaqueductal Gray, Pregnanolone, Rats, Rats, Wistar, Serotonin, Stress, Psychological |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Neuro, Physiology and Pharmacology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1459164 |
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