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  • Stress and CRF gate neural activation of BDNF in the mesolimbic reward pathway.

Stress and CRF gate neural activation of BDNF in the mesolimbic reward pathway.

Nature neuroscience (2013-11-26)
Jessica J Walsh, Allyson K Friedman, Haosheng Sun, Elizabeth A Heller, Stacy M Ku, Barbara Juarez, Veronica L Burnham, Michelle S Mazei-Robison, Deveroux Ferguson, Sam A Golden, Ja Wook Koo, Dipesh Chaudhury, Daniel J Christoffel, Lisa Pomeranz, Jeffrey M Friedman, Scott J Russo, Eric J Nestler, Ming-Hu Han
ABSTRACT

Mechanisms controlling release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the mesolimbic dopamine reward pathway remain unknown. We report that phasic optogenetic activation of this pathway increases BDNF amounts in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of socially stressed mice but not of stress-naive mice. This stress gating of BDNF signaling is mediated by corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) acting in the NAc. These results unravel a stress context-detecting function of the brain's mesolimbic circuit.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Supelco
Dopamine hydrochloride, Pharmaceutical Secondary Standard; Certified Reference Material
Dopamine hydrochloride, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Sigma-Aldrich
Corticotropin Releasing Factor sheep, ≥95% (HPLC)
Sigma-Aldrich
Dopamine hydrochloride
Supelco
Dopamine hydrochloride solution, 1.0 mg/mL in methanol with 5% 1 M HCl (as free base), ampule of 1 mL, certified reference material, Cerilliant®