RNA-seq of the pituitary gland of male rats exposed to stress against unexposed controls

Environmental stressors such as repeated social defeat may trigger powerful activation of sub-conscious parts of the brain. We examine the consequences of such stress in male rats on the pituitary gland. We prepared 20 Sprague Dawley rats. 10 of them were exposed to stress induced by the resident-intruder paradigm while the other 10 were controls. After dislocation of the neck under isoflurane anaesthesia, the pituitary gland was harvested. Total RNA was isolated from the tissues and used in mRNA sequencing.