Social defeat stress as a model for depression: behavioral and neuroendocrine effects

• Grant number: 16/04309-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2016
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - Neuropsychopharmacology
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Marian Hartmann de Quadros
• Grantee: Yasmin Cristina Nunes
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Chronic exposure to stress has been considered a major vulnerability factor for the development of a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, drug abuse and dependence. Social defeat stress consists of an aggressive confrontation between members of the same species, in which an animal is attacked and defeated by an aggressor, assuming submissive posture. Chronic social defeat has been proposed as a model for the investigation of behavioral, neurochemical and neuroendocrine aspects associated with depressive disorders and drug dependence. This project aims to expand the characterization of the consequences of chronic exposure to social defeat stress, assessing behavioral and neuroendrocrine aspects associated with depression and with the effects of ethanol. To achieve this goal, we will analyze the impact of continuous social defeat stress on the induction of a depressive-like behavioral phenotype and on ethanol stimulating effects in Swiss male mice. Further, this study will also evaluate possible changes in plasma corticosterone levels, and monoamines levels in specific brain regions associated with motivation and reward, in animals exposed to ethanol or to a forced swim test. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FAVORETTO, CRISTIANE A.; NUNES, YASMIN C.; MACEDO, GIOVANA C.; ROCHA LOPES, JANAINA SILVA; HARTMANN QUADROS, ISABEL M.. Chronic social defeat stress: Impacts on ethanol-induced stimulation, corticosterone response, and brain monoamine levels. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, v. 34, n. 4, JAN 2020. (14/14623-2, 16/04309-4, 13/01562-2)