Transcriptome profiles in mice experienced chronic stress and cortical cultures treated with neuropsychiatric drugs

Chronic stress leads to brain dysfunctions associated with transcriptome alteration in the brain. The aim of the study is to examine the changes in the transcriptome following antidepressant treatment in the mouse brain in vivo and in cortical culture in vitro, in order to understand the molecular mechanism underlying neuropsychiatric disease and their treatment. Overall design: social defeat stress; adult male mice (Mus musculus, Slc:ICR) were subjected to 10 days of repeated social defeat stress. Before and during the stress, mice were treated with either sertraline, lithium carbonate, or vehicle in the drinking water. 3 days after the end of stress, the anterior part of the cortex, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), was dissected and subjected to total RNA purification and library preparation. Early life stress; pups are subjected to 4 hours of maternal separation every day during postnatal day 2 to 15 and then reared normally till 8 weeks. Then, the anterior part of the cortex, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), was dissected and subjected to total RNA purification and library preparation. Single-cell analysis; the prefrontal cortex (PFC) from the mice subjected to 10-day social were dissociated and the nucleus was collected. Cortical culture; we used a dissection of the cortex prepared embryonic day 15 embryo. Such neurons were administrated sertraline at 14 days in vitro (div); 14 hours later, the cells were stimulated with bicuculine and 4-aminopyridine for 2 hours. The REST4 was transduced by an AAV vector at 3 div.