Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China.
Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China; Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, Ministry of Education/National Health Commission, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China; Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China.
Neuroscience. 2019 Oct 15;418:50-58. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.08.032. Epub 2019 Aug 25.
Remarkable sex difference has been observed in emotional processing including anxiety. The hippocampus, its ventral pole in particular, modulates anxiety-like behavior in rodents. However, most researches have been performed in male animals only, leaving hippocampal modulation of anxiety in females poorly defined. In the present study, we showed that excitotoxic lesioning of the ventral hippocampus with ibotenic acid produced anxiolytic effects in three behavioral tests (novelty-suppressed feeding, marble burying, and elevated-plus maze) in male but not female C57BL/6 J mice. Locomotion in the open field remained similar after lesioning in either sex. More c-Fos-positive neurons were observed in the ventral hippocampus in male than in female mice after exploration in an elevated plus-maze, indicating stronger enrollment of this region in anxiety-like behavior in males. These results reveal significant biological sex difference in ventral hippocampal modulation on anxiety in mice and provide a new sight for anxiety modulation and hippocampal function.
在情绪处理方面，包括焦虑，已经观察到显著的性别差异。海马体，特别是其腹侧极，调节啮齿动物的类似焦虑的行为。然而，大多数研究仅在雄性动物中进行，使得女性的海马体调节焦虑的情况尚未明确。在本研究中，我们发现，使用ibotenic acid 对雄性 C57BL/6J 小鼠的腹侧海马体进行兴奋毒性损伤会产生抗焦虑作用，而在雌性小鼠中则没有这种作用。在两种性别中，开放场中的运动都没有因损伤而改变。在高架十字迷宫中探索后，雄性小鼠的腹侧海马体中观察到更多的 c-Fos 阳性神经元，表明该区域在雄性类似焦虑的行为中更强地参与。这些结果揭示了在小鼠的腹侧海马体调节焦虑方面存在显著的生物学性别差异，并为焦虑调节和海马体功能提供了新的视角。
