Yes / Phencyclidine (PCP), used to mimic certain aspects of schizophrenia, induces sexually dimorphic, cognitive deficits in rats. In this study, the effects of sub-chronic PCP on expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophic factor implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, have been evaluated in male and female rats. Male and female hooded-Lister rats received vehicle or PCP (n = 8 per group; 2 mg/kg i.p. twice daily for 7 days) and were tested in the attentional set shifting task prior to being sacrificed (6 weeks post-treatment). Levels of BDNF mRNA were measured in specific brain regions using in situ hybridisation. Male rats were less sensitive to PCP-induced deficits in the extra-dimensional shift stage of the attentional set shifting task compared to female rats. Quantitative analysis of brain regions demonstrated reduced BDNF levels in the medial prefrontal cortex (p < 0.05), motor cortex (p < 0.01), orbital cortex (p < 0.01), olfactory bulb (p < 0.05), retrosplenial cortex (p < 0.001), frontal cortex (p < 0.01), parietal cortex (p < 0.01), CA1 (p < 0.05) and polymorphic layer of dentate gyrus (p < 0.05) of the hippocampus and the central (p < 0.01), lateral (p < 0.05) and basolateral (p < 0.05) regions of the amygdaloid nucleus in female PCP-treated rats compared with controls. In contrast, BDNF was significantly reduced only in the orbital cortex and central amygdaloid region of male rats (p < 0.05). Results suggest that blockade of NMDA receptors by sub-chronic PCP administration has a long-lasting down-regulatory effect on BDNF mRNA expression in the female rat brain which may underlie some of the behavioural deficits observed post PCP administration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/8489 |
| Date | 18 September 2010 |
| Creators | Snigdha, S., Neill, Joanna C., McLean, Samantha L., Shemar, G.K., Cruise, L., Shahid, M., Henry, B. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, published version paper |
| Rights | © 2010 Humana Press. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial–No Derivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk). This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com |
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