Division of Medicinal Pharmacology, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
Neurosci Res. 2012 Jul;73(3):257-62. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2012.04.004. Epub 2012 Apr 19.
Social isolation stress induces behavioral disturbances such as aggression, cognitive impairments, and deficits in prepulse inhibition in mice. Social isolation mice have, therefore, been studied as an animal model of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Recently, the decrease in early growth response (Egr) gene expression levels were reported in the post-mortem brains of schizophrenia patients. In this study, we investigate the effects of social isolation stress on the expression levels of Egr mRNA and protein in the frontal cortex. Social isolation stress exposure significantly down-regulated the expression of Egr-1 protein and Egr-1 gene transcript in nucleus of cortical neurons in a manner dependent on a social isolation period. This stress had no effect on the expression level of Egr-1 in the striatum or the expression levels of other Egr family members (Egr-2, -3, and -4) in the frontal cortex. These results suggest that the decrease in Egr-1 expression in the frontal cortex may be involved in social isolation stress-induced behavioral abnormalities.
社交隔离应激会导致行为障碍，如攻击行为、认知障碍和条件性回避反应缺陷，因此社交隔离应激的小鼠被作为精神分裂症等神经精神疾病的动物模型进行研究。最近，有报道称精神分裂症患者死后大脑中的早期生长反应（Egr）基因表达水平降低。在这项研究中，我们调查了社交隔离应激对皮质神经元核中 Egr mRNA 和蛋白表达水平的影响。社交隔离应激暴露以一种依赖于社交隔离时间的方式显著下调了 Egr-1 蛋白和 Egr-1 基因转录本的表达。这种应激对纹状体中 Egr-1 的表达水平或皮质中其他 Egr 家族成员（Egr-2、-3 和-4）的表达水平没有影响。这些结果表明，皮质中 Egr-1 表达的减少可能与社交隔离应激诱导的行为异常有关。
