Objective: Under physiological conditions, astrocytes produce lactate to meet the increased synaptic energy demand due to neuronal activity. In the light of the findings showing that this process is disrupted in the pathophysiology of major depression, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of pharmacological inhibition of perisynaptic astrocyte glycogen utilization on anxiety-like behavior and depression-like behavior in female and male mice.
Methods: In this study, DAB (1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-arabinitol), which is an inhibitor of glycogen breaking enzyme glycogen phosphorylase, was intrahippocampally administered to 15 female and 14 male Swiss albino mice, while 15 female and 12 male Swiss albino mice received intrahippocampal saline injections.