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Effects of early neonatal proinflammatory stress on the expression of BDNF transcripts in the brain regions of prepubertal male rats

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Russian Journal of Genetics: Applied Research

Abstract

Early postnatal proinflammatory stress may evoke behavioral impairments in adulthood; however, the underlying mechanisms are still elusive. The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a key role in neuroplastic changes in health, as well as in pathology. The BDNF gene is transcribed to exon-specific mRNAs and the pattern of their expression depends on stimulus. We suggested that disturbances of the exonspecific BDNF mRNA expression in the brain regions after stress induced by proinflammatory stimuli in the early postnatal period could be one of the underlying mechanisms of consequent behavioral impairments. Thus, the aim of the study was to examine the effects of proinflammatory stress in early postnatal ontogeny on the BDNF polypeptide content and the patterns of expression of the BDNF gene in the neocortex and hippocampus of prepubertal male rats. The proinflammatory stress was induced by the subcutaneous administration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to rat pups on postnatal days 3 and 5, while BDNF expression was studied in 36-day-old rats. The BDNF polypeptide content was estimated using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, while a quantitative polymerase chain reaction followed by reverse transcription was used to detect the exon-specific BDNF mRNA expression. The levels of BDNF and its transcripts, containing the common exon IX were similar in the control and LPS-treated rats. In the rats treated with LPS, the level of BDNF mRNA containing exon IV was lower in the neocortex but not in the hippocampus. No changes in the expression of the transcripts containing exons I and VI were observed in any of the brain structures studied. We suggest that specific alterations in BDNF expression may be involved in susceptibility to the development of behavioral impairments of animals subjected to early proinflammatory stress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal State Budgetary Institution Serbsky Federal Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Drug Addiction, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia

    D. I. Peregud

  2. Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    D. I. Peregud, S. V. Freiman, A. O. Tishkina, L. S. Sokhranyaeva, N. A. Lazareva, M. V. Onufriev, M. Y. Stepanichev & N. V. Gulyaeva

  3. Research and Practice Psychoneurology Centre, Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia

    S. V. Freiman & M. V. Onufriev

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  1. D. I. Peregud
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  2. S. V. Freiman
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  3. A. O. Tishkina
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  4. L. S. Sokhranyaeva
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  5. N. A. Lazareva
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  6. M. V. Onufriev
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  7. M. Y. Stepanichev
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  8. N. V. Gulyaeva
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Correspondence to D. I. Peregud.

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Original Russian Text © D.I. Peregud, S.V. Freiman, A.O. Tishkina, L.S. Sokhranyaeva, N.A. Lazareva, M.V. Onufriev, M.Y. Stepanichev, N.V. Gulyaeva, 2016, published in Vavilovskii Zhurnal Genetiki i Selektsii, 2016, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 191–197.

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Peregud, D.I., Freiman, S.V., Tishkina, A.O. et al. Effects of early neonatal proinflammatory stress on the expression of BDNF transcripts in the brain regions of prepubertal male rats. Russ J Genet Appl Res 7, 121–127 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079059717010117

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