The role of neurotrophic factors in adult hippocampal neurogenesis, antidepressant treatments and animal models of depressive-like behavior
Top Cited Papers
- 1 September 2007
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Wolters Kluwer Health in Behavioural Pharmacology
- Vol. 18 (5-6) , 391-418
- https://doi.org/10.1097/fbp.0b013e3282ee2aa8
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by structural and neurochemical changes in limbic structures, including the hippocampus, that regulate mood and cognitive functions. Hippocampal atrophy is observed in patients with depression and this effect is blocked or reversed by antidepressant treatments. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and other neurotrophic/growth factors are decreased in postmortem hippocampal tissue from suicide victims, which suggests that altered trophic support could contribute to the pathophysiology of MDD. Preclinical studies demonstrate that exposure to stress leads to atrophy and cell loss in the hippocampus as well as decreased expression of neurotrophic/growth factors, and that antidepressant administration reverses or blocks the effects of stress. Accumulating evidence suggests that altered neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus mediates the action of antidepressants. Chronic antidepressant administration upregulates neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus and this cellular response is required for the effects of antidepressants in certain animal models of depression. Here, we review cellular (e.g. adult neurogenesis) and behavioral studies that support the neurotrophic/neurogenic hypothesis of depression and antidepressant action. Aberrant regulation of neuronal plasticity, including neurogenesis, in the hippocampus and other limbic nuclei may result in maladaptive changes in neural networks that underlie the pathophysiology of MDD.Keywords
This publication has 347 references indexed in Scilit:
- Acute exposure to predator odor elicits a robust increase in corticosterone and a decrease in activity without altering proliferation in the adult rat hippocampusExperimental Neurology, 2006
- Repeated brief social defeat episodes in mice: Effects on cell proliferation in the dentate gyrusBehavioural Brain Research, 2006
- Cytoarchitecture of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR‐2) immunoreactivity in astrocytes of neurogenic and non‐neurogenic regions of the young adult and aged rat brainJournal of Comparative Neurology, 2006
- Inhibition of neurogenesis interferes with hippocampus‐dependent memory functionHippocampus, 2006
- The stress system in the human brain in depression and neurodegenerationPublished by Elsevier ,2005
- Age-dependent susceptibility of adult hippocampal cell proliferation to chronic psychosocial stressBrain Research, 2005
- Depression: a case of neuronal life and death?Biological Psychiatry, 2004
- Spontaneous Limbic Seizures after Intrahippocampal Infusion of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic FactorExperimental Neurology, 2002
- Basic fibroblast growth factor (BFGF) and two of its receptors, FGFR1 and FGFR2: gene expression in the rat brain during postnatal development as determined by quantitative RT-PCRMolecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 1994
- Adult neurogenesis is regulated by adrenal steroids in the dentate gyrusNeuroscience, 1994