Metamorphosis in the insect larva is associated with disintegration, engulf and digestion of larval tissues. These processes are accompanied by a significant shift in physiological parameters like high activity of hydrolytic enzymes and decrease of pH. In the way, the metamorphosing larva resembles the processes occurring in the wound at the stage of inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Affective disorders, especially depression and anxiety, are highly prevalent, debilitating mental illnesses. Animal experimental models are a valuable tool in translational affective neuroscience research. A hallmark phenotype of clinical and experimental depression, the learned helplessness, has become a key target for 'behavioral despair'-based animal models of depression.
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