Department of Histology and Embryology, Basic Medical Sciences College, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110001, PR China.
Mol Med Rep. 2012 Aug;6(2):330-4. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2012.937. Epub 2012 Jun 6.
It is not clear whether or not the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) is involved in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The purpose of this study was to provide novel insights into the mechanism(s) through which the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a role in PTSD by investigating MR expression in the mPFC of rats exposed to single prolonged stress (SPS), which is an established animal model for PTSD. A total of 90 healthy, male Wistar rats were selected for this study and randomly divided into normal control and SPS groups of 1, 7, 14 and 28 days. This study investigated the changes in MR expression in the mPFC of rats after SPS, which revealed pathogenetic mechanisms. The expression of MR in the mPFC was examined by immunofluorescence, western blotting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). SPS exposure resulted in a significant change in MR expression in the SPS model groups compared with the normal control group. The MR protein was found to be localized in the cytoplasm and its expression levels were significantly increased in SPS rats, peaking at SPS 7 days, followed by a gradual decrease; however, a positive expression revealed a restoratory increase in the SPS-28 day group. The results suggest that MR plays an important role in the pathology of PTSD.
目前尚不清楚盐皮质激素受体（MR）是否参与创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。本研究的目的是通过研究经历单次延长应激（SPS）的大鼠的内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）中的 MR 表达，提供有关 mPFC 在 PTSD 中发挥作用的机制的新见解，SPS 是 PTSD 的一种既定动物模型。本研究共选择了 90 只健康的雄性 Wistar 大鼠，并将其随机分为正常对照组和 SPS 组，每组 1、7、14 和 28 天。这项研究调查了 SPS 后大鼠 mPFC 中 MR 表达的变化，揭示了发病机制。通过免疫荧光、Western blot 和逆转录-聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测 mPFC 中 MR 的表达。与正常对照组相比，SPS 暴露导致 SPS 模型组中 MR 表达发生显著变化。发现 MR 蛋白位于细胞质中，其表达水平在 SPS 大鼠中明显增加，在 SPS 第 7 天达到峰值，随后逐渐下降；然而，在 SPS 第 28 天组中观察到阳性表达呈现出恢复性增加。这些结果表明，MR 在 PTSD 的发病机制中发挥重要作用。
