Gene expression analysis of prefrontal cortex in mice exposed to chronic mild stress. Mus musculus

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common disorder and is responsible for considerable disability in global functioning, anorexia, and severer medical comorbidity. Recently, some reports showed the relationship between MDD and the metabolic disorders such as diabetes. We examined gene expression profiles in the mice prefrontal cortex using genome-wide microarray technology, and determined gene expression profiles with and without chronic mild stress(CMS) for 4 weeks which was often used to make models of depression. To analyze the candidate genes involved in not only depression but dysfunction of physiological homeostasis like diabetes, we campared the gene expression levels between with and without CMS, then we isolated 494 genes showing a more than 2-fold increase or a less than 1/2-fold decrease, in addition, we chose the isolated genes transcriptional products of both samples were confirmed clearly. Overall design: The prefrontal cortex of C57Bl/6 N sea mice with and without CMS. We mixed tatal RNA from 7 mice prefrontal cortex per each.

重度抑郁症（Major depressive disorder, MDD）是一种常见精神障碍，可显著损害个体整体功能，引发食欲减退，并伴随更为严重的内科共病。近期多项研究揭示了MDD与糖尿病等代谢性疾病之间的关联。本研究采用全基因组微阵列技术，检测小鼠前额叶皮层的基因表达谱；同时针对经4周慢性轻度应激（chronic mild stress, CMS，抑郁造模常用手段）处理与未处理的小鼠，分别测定其基因表达谱。为筛选同时参与抑郁病理过程与糖尿病等生理稳态失衡过程的候选基因，我们首先比较了CMS处理组与对照组的基因表达水平，筛选出表达上调超过2倍或下调至原水平1/2以下的共494个基因；此外，我们还验证了上述筛选基因在两组样本中的转录产物均清晰可辨。实验设计概述：以C57BL/6N近交系小鼠的前额叶皮层为研究对象，设置CMS处理组与未处理对照组，每组取7只小鼠的前额叶皮层总RNA进行混合后开展实验。