Faculty Collaboration Database

Behavioral and accumbens synaptic plasticity induced by cues associated with restraint stress. Neuropsychopharmacology 2021 Sep;46(10):1848-1856

Date

07/07/2021

Pubmed ID

34226657

Pubmed Central ID

PMC8357931

DOI

10.1038/s41386-021-01074-7

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85109926164 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   17 Citations

Abstract

Exposure to acute stress can increase vulnerability to develop or express many psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder. We hypothesized that stress-induced psychiatric vulnerability is associated with enduring neuroplasticity in the nucleus accumbens core because stress exposure can alter drug addiction-related behaviors that are associated with accumbens synaptic plasticity. We used a single 2-h stress session and 3 weeks later exposed male and female rats to stress-conditioned odors in a modified defensive burying task, and quantified both active and avoidant coping strategies. We measured corticosterone, dendritic spine and astrocyte morphology in accumbens, and examined reward sensitivity using a sucrose two-bottle choice and operant sucrose self-administration. Exposure to stress odor increased burying (active coping) and immobility (avoidant coping) in the defensive burying task in female and male rats. Systemic corticosterone was transiently increased by both ongoing acute restraint stress and stress-conditioned odors. Three weeks after administering acute restraint stress, we observed increased dendritic spine density and head diameter, and decreased synaptic association with astroglia and the astroglial glutamate transporter, GLT-1. Exposure to conditioned stress further increased head diameter without affecting spine density or astroglial morphology, and this increase by conditioned stress was correlated with burying behavior. Finally, we found that stress-exposed females have a preference for sweet solutions and higher motivation to seek sucrose than stressed male rats. We conclude that acute stress produced enduring plasticity in accumbens postsynapses and associated astroglia. Moreover, conditioned stress odors induced active behavioral coping strategies that were correlated with dendritic spine morphology.

Author List

Garcia-Keller C, Carter JS, Kruyer A, Kearns AM, Hopkins JL, Hodebourg R, Kalivas PW, Reichel CM

Author

Constanza Garcia Keller PhD Assistant Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Cues
Drug-Seeking Behavior
Female
Male
Neuronal Plasticity
Nucleus Accumbens
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley