TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hamann, Catharina S.
A1  - Bankmann, Julian
A1  - Mora Maza, Hanna
A1  - Kornhuber, Johannes
A1  - Zoicas, Iulia
A1  - Schmitt-Böhrer, Angelika
T1  - Social fear affects limbic system neuronal activity and gene expression
JF  - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
N2  - Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a highly prevalent and comorbid anxiety disorder with rather unclear underlying mechanisms. Here, we aimed to characterize neurobiological changes occurring in mice expressing symptoms of social fear and to identify possible therapeutic targets for SAD. Social fear was induced via social fear conditioning (SFC), a validated animal model of SAD. We assessed the expression levels of the immediate early genes (IEGs) cFos, Fosl2 and Arc as markers of neuronal activity and the expression levels of several genes of the GABAergic, serotoninergic, oxytocinergic, vasopressinergic and neuropeptide Y (NPY)-ergic systems in brain regions involved in social behavior or fear-related behavior in SFC+ and SFC− mice 2 h after exposure to a conspecific. SFC+ mice showed a decreased number and density of cFos-positive cells and decreased expression levels of IEGs in the dorsal hippocampus. SFC+ mice also showed alterations in the expression of NPY and serotonin system-related genes in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, basolateral amygdala, septum and dorsal raphe nucleus, but not in the dorsal hippocampus. Our results describe neuronal alterations occurring during the expression of social fear and identify the NPY and serotonergic systems as possible targets in the treatment of SAD.
KW  - social anxiety
KW  - fear expression
KW  - social avoidance
KW  - gene expression
KW  - Npy
KW  - Npyr1
KW  - Npyr2
KW  - Htr1a
KW  - Htr2a
KW  - Htr2c
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284274
SN  - 1422-0067
VL  - 23
IS  - 15
ER  -