Microglial RNA-sequencing after stress-sensitization by repeated social defeat

Stress is associated with an increased prevalence of anxiety and depression. Repeated social defeat (RSD) stress in mice increases the release of monocytes from the bone marrow that are recruited to the brain by microglia. These monocytes enhance inflammatory signaling and augment anxiety. Moreover, RSD promotes stress sensitization, in which exposure to acute stress 24 days after cessation of RSD causes anxiety recurrence. The purpose of this study was to determine whether microglia were critical to stress sensitization and exhibited altered gene expression 24 days after RSD. Adult (2mo) C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 6 cycles of repeated social defeat (RSD) or controls (CON). At 24d after the final cycle of RSD, RNA was extracted from FAC-sorted microglia (CD11b+/CD45int). RNA sequencing was performed and sequences were aligned with STAR and normalized counts and differential gene expression were determined using DESeq2 in R.