Investigation of Poststroke Depression Following a Nucleus Accumbens Infarct in Mice | Stroke
BACKGROUND: Poststroke depression (PSD) affects ≈33% of individuals 1 year after a stroke. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a hub for emotional processing, reward, and mood regulation, has been linked to stress-induced depressive-like behaviors in male mice. Neurovascular alterations were also observed in postmortem tissue samples from men with a diagnosis of major depression. Thus, we aimed to investigate if BBB changes in the NAc could contribute to PSD pathophysiology. METHODS: Stereotaxic injection of ET-1 (endothelin-1), a potent vasoconstrictor, was performed in the NAc of male mice to create a focal brain stroke, and then, infarct size and localization were assessed and quantified. We subsequently evaluated transcriptomic and morphological effects of the infarct on BBB-related genes and cells in the NAc, particularly those known to be altered after stress exposure in mice or human depression. BBB integrity was assessed with a dextran dye, and
