Gene expression profiling of prefrontal cortices of mice subjected to acute and chronic social stress

In order to better understand the effects of social stress on the prefrontal cortex, we investigated gene expression in mice subjected to acute and repeated social encounters of different duration using microarrays. The observed up-regulation of genes associated with vascular system and brain injury suggests that stressful social encounters may affect brain function through the stress-induced dysfunction of the vascular system. The study was supported by Grant N N311 604938, 2011/03/N/NZ29/05222 and partially by IP2011 030371. Statistical analysis of microarray data was supported with Grant N N519 657940. We studied gene expression profiles of prefrontal cortices of male mice subjected to social stress of different durations: Comparisons included: acute stress (24 hours after single social stress episode) vs. acute control (unstressed), stress-8 days vs. control-8 days, stress-13 days vs. control-13 days, stress-13 days+5 days of rest vs. control-13 days+5 days of rest. For each comparison, we analyzed 3 biological replicates per group. Two of out of three biological replicates were further replicated in dye swap (final dye swap failed due to problem during microarray hybridization). Each biological replicate consisted of equal amounts of total RNA from 3 mice subjected to the same experimental condition.