Publications by authors named "Stephanie A Gacek"
Genetic predisposition and environmental stress are known etiologies of stress-related psychiatric disorders. Environmental stress during adolescence is assumed to be particularly detrimental for adult affective behaviors. To investigate how genetic stress-reactivity differences modify the effects of stress during adolescence on adult affective behaviors we employed two inbred strains with differing stress reactivity.
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- Postpartum depression is linked to genetic predisposition, and inbred rat models like Wistar Kyoto (WKY) allow researchers to explore this further.
- Wistar Kyoto More Immobile (WMI) dams displayed lower litter survival and different maternal behaviors compared to the control Wistar Kyoto Less Immobile (WLI) dams, such as increased licking and grooming of pups.
- Genetic expression differences in hormone receptors and circadian rhythm-related genes were found between WMI and WLI dams, indicating that these strains can help study the genetic factors influencing postpartum behaviors.
The role of stress in altering fear memory is not well understood. Since individual variations in stress reactivity exist, and stress alters fear memory, exposing individuals with differing stress-reactivity to repeated stress would affect their fear memory to various degrees. We explored this question using the average stress-reactive Fisher 344 (F344) rat strain and the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) strain with its heightened stress-reactivity.
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- The study investigates individual differences in acute stress responsiveness, primarily using Fischer 344 (F344) and Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rat strains known for their contrasting stress behaviors.
- A specific region on chromosome 6, identified as Stresp10, was analyzed for genetic variations that may contribute to these behavioral differences through gene expression studies in key brain areas.
- The creation of a congenic strain combining genetic material from WKY and F344 at the Stresp10 region linked certain genes, like Gpatch11 and Cdkl4, to behavioral traits associated with stress responsiveness, suggesting they may be important in understanding this variation.