Isolated Flinders Sensitive Line rats have decreased dopamine D2 receptor mRNA : NeuroReport

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MOLECULAR NEUROSCIENCE

Isolated Flinders Sensitive Line rats have decreased dopamine D2 receptor mRNA

Bjørnebekk, Astrida; Mathé, Aleksander A.b; Brené, Stefanc

Author Information

aDepartment of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute

bKarolinska Institute, Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry M56, Karolinska, University Hospital Huddinge

cDepartment of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence to Astrid Bjørnebekk, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel: +46 8 52487098; fax: +46 8 323742; e-mail: [email protected]

Received 7 March 2007; accepted 11 March 2007

NeuroReport 18(10):p 1039-1043, July 2, 2007. | DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e3281668bf7

Abstract

Social isolation has profound effects on animal behavior and dopamine systems. We investigated the effect of social isolation on the dopamine receptor and neuropeptide mRNAs in the brain reward system in an animal model of depression, the Flinders Sensitive Line rats and Sprague–Dawley controls. We demonstrate that socially isolated but not group housed Flinders sensitive line rats had lower dopamine D2 receptor mRNA levels compared with Sprague–Dawley rats. Isolated and group housed Flinders Sensitive Line rats had higher levels of dopamine D1 receptor and substance P and enkephalin but not dynorphin mRNAs when compared with Sprague–Dawley rats. Our findings of decreased dopamine D2 receptor levels in socially isolated Flinders Sensitive Line rats suggest that low D2 receptor expression may play a role in pathophysiology of depression.

© 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

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