Differential gene expression in peripheral blood leukocytes from mice subject to repeated social defeat

This study tested the effects of repeated social defeat (RSD) on gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and examined the extent to which these effects were abrogated by depletion of CD11b+ cells (monocytes). Study Type: Risk prediction Gene expression profiling was carried out on peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) mRNA samples collected from 18 mice randomized to either 6 cycles of repeated social defeat (RSD, n=9) or to home cage control (HCC, n=9) conditions. PBMC samples were pooled into 3 groups of n=3 samples in each condition, and Illumina Mouse Ref-8 BeadArray assays were performed on approximately 1 million total PBMC and 1 million PBMC from which CD11b+ cells were immunomagnetically depleted by MACS. The primary research questions are 1) whether expression of pro-inflammatory genes is altered by RSD, and 2) whether depletion of CD11b+ cells (monocytes) abrogates these effects.