J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2012 Jan 27. [Epub ahead of print]
COMPARISON OF {Delta}FOSB IMMUNOREACTIVITY INDUCED BY VAGAL NERVE STIMULATION WITH THAT CAUSED BY PHARMACOLOGICALLY DIVERSE ANTIDEPRESSANTS.
Source
1 University of Texas Health Science Center;Abstract
Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) has been approved for treatment refractory depression. Yet there have been few if any studies directly comparing effects produced by VNS in animals with those caused by antidepressants, particularly using clinically relevant stimulation parameters in non-anesthetized animals. In this study, ΔFosB immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate different brain regions activated by chronic administration of VNS. Effects of VNS were compared with those caused by sertraline (SERT) or desipramine (DMI). Double-labeling of ΔFosB and serotonin was used to determine whether serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) were activated by chronic VNS. VNS significantly increased ΔFosB staining in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), parabrachial nucleus (PBN), locus coeruleus (LC) and DRN, as well as in many cortical and limbic areas of brain including those involved in mood and cognition. Most, but not all, of these effects were seen also upon repeated treatments of rats with sertraline or DMI. Some areas where VNS increased ΔFosB (e.g the NTS, PBN, LC and peripeduncular nucleus) were not affected significantly by either drug. Sertraline was similar to VNS in causing an increase in the DRN whereas DMI did not. Double-labeling of the DRN with ΔFosB and an antibody for serotonin revealed that only a small percentage of ΔFosB staining in the DRN co-localized with serotonergic neurons. Effects of VNS were somewhat more widespread than those of caused by the antidepressants. The increases in ΔFosB produced by VNS were either equivalent to and/or more robust than those seen with antidepressants.- PMID:
- 22286499
- [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
No comments:
Post a Comment