Genetic background modulates the effect of glucocorticoids on proliferation, differentiation and myelin formation of oligodendrocyte lineage cells.

Anxiety disorders are prevalent mental disorders. Their predisposition involves a combination of genetic and environmental risk factors, such as psychosocial stress. Myelin plasticity was recently associated with chronic stress in several mouse models.

Gene expression profiling reveals a role of immune system and inflammation in innate and stress-induced anxiety-like behavior.

Anxiety is an evolutionarily conserved response that is essential for survival. Pathological anxiety, however, is a maladaptive response to nonthreatening situations and greatly affects quality of life. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has increased the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and highlighted the urge to identify the molecular events that initiate pathological anxiety.

Node of Ranvier remodeling in chronic psychosocial stress and anxiety.

Differential expression of myelin-related genes and changes in myelin thickness have been demonstrated in mice after chronic psychosocial stress, a risk factor for anxiety disorders. To determine whether and how stress affects structural remodeling of nodes of Ranvier, another form of myelin plasticity, we developed a 3D reconstruction analysis of node morphology in C57BL/6NCrl and DBA/2NCrl mice. We identified strain-dependent effects of chronic social defeat stress on node morphology in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) gray matter, including shortening of paranodes in C57BL/6NCrl stress-resilient and shortening of node gaps in DBA/2NCrl stress-susceptible mice compared to controls.

Kainate Receptor Auxiliary Subunit NETO2-Related Cued Fear Conditioning Impairments Associate with Defects in Amygdala Development and Excitability.

NETO2 is an auxiliary subunit for kainate-type glutamate receptors that mediate normal cued fear expression and extinction. Since the amygdala is critical for these functions, we asked whether mice have compromised amygdala function. We measured the abundance of molecular markers of neuronal maturation and plasticity, parvalbumin-positive (PV), perineuronal net-positive (PNN), and double positive (PVPNN) cells in the amygdala.