Novel aspects of the transcriptional stress response in the paraventricular nucleus of the mouse strains DBA/2J and C57BL/6J. Mus musculus

The pivotal role of stress in the precipitation of psychiatric diseases is generally accepted. To further elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms, gene networks and signalling cascades, we investigated the impact of an acute stressor, forced swimming, on the gene expression profile in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN). We performed this study in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice, which are known to differ in their reaction to stress. Mice were exposed to forced swimming as stressor, brains were dissected 4h and 8h after stress, both from stressed and unstressed animals, and the RNA profiles from the PVN were evaluated by microarray analysis. Keywords: time course, treatment response, strain differences Overall design: RNAs from unstressed animals (basal) were compared to RNAs from stressed animals (either 4h or 8h after stress) for both mouse strains (DBA/2J and C57BL/6). In addition, RNA from the two strains were compared under basal conditions. Technical replicates: 10 for each time point, including dye-swap each with 5 replicates