Hippocampal gene expression profiling in mice treated with stigmasterol

Anxiety and stress-related conditions represent a significant health burden in modern society. Unfortunately, most of the drugs currently used in the clinic modulate neurotransmission and are prone to side effects, limiting their long-term use. We used bioinformatics screening to find small molecules mimicking the transcriptional profile recently reported in hippocampi of importin a5 mutant anxiolytic mice, identifying the plant sterol ß-sitosterol as a top candidate. Behavioral analyses confirmed anxiolytic properties of ß-sitosterol, but did not show anxiolytic activity for stigmasterol, a related plant sterol. The present RNA-seq experiment characterizes the hippocampal transcriptome in mice 1 hr and 6 hrs after after intraperitoneal injection of 100 mg/kg stigmasterol or vehicle. Overall design: RNA-seq performed on: 2 treatment groups (stigmasterol; vehicle), 2 time points per treatment (1hr; 6hrs), 3 animals per each group and replicate