Cell-type specific regulation mechanisms of depression in the nucleus accumbens

Background: Depression is the leading cause of disability which produces enormous health and economic burdens. In the reward circuitry, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key brain region of depression pathophysiology, possibly based on differential activities of D1- or D2-type medium spiny neurons (MSNs). Methods: To separate D1- or D2-MSN specific transcriptomes in the NAc, RiboTag (RT) mice were crossed with D1- or D2-Cre lines and subjected to chronic social defeat stress. The cell-type specifically tagged ribosome-mRNA complex was pulled down by anti-HA antibody, and purified RNAs were subjected to RNA sequencing. Sequencing data were analyzed and defined differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were validated with RNAscope and viral overexpression in vivo. Results: Both MSN subtypes express distinct gene expression profiles according to stress groups. The DEGs are correlated with depression relevant gene ontology terms. Behavioral susceptibility and resilience are also correlated with subsets of DEGs, especially in D1-MSNs. Conclusions: Distinct subsets of genes are modulated in a cell-type specific manner in the NAc of depressed mice. Here we provided valuable transcriptome data sets for future studies on depression. Neuron type specific transcriptome profiles in the NAc of mouse depression model (chronic social defeat stress) were generated using RiboTag and RNA sequencing methods (n=4~5)