- 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
PMID24270188
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