RT Conference Proceedings
T1 Female microglia and neurogenesis respond differently to social defeat stress compared to males.
T2 Females vs Males in Depression: why we should start treating them differently
A1 Infantes-López, María Inmaculada
A1 Zambrana-Infantes, Emma
A1 Chaves-Peña, Patricia
A1 Nieto-Quero, Andrea
A1 Muñoz-Martín, José
A1 Zea-Doña, Alejandro
A1 Pedraza-Benítez, María del Carmen
A1 Pérez-Martín, Margarita
K1 Neurobiología del desarrollo
K1 Depresión mental - Diferencias sexuales
K1 Modelos animales en investigación
AB Depression is a concerning public health threat highly associated with stress. Stress increases brain immune alterations, namely inmicroglia, which can affect neuron physiology, like neurogenesis, causing a depressive-like behavior. However, despite depression being twice as frequentin females, most studies have been done in males. This results in a gap in our current understanding of stress processing in both sexes, and consequentlyin our current therapeutical approach.Here, we used the social defeat stress (SDS) paradigm in 8-week-old male and female C57BL/6J mice for 10 consecutive days. Anhedonic and socialbehavior were assessed to evaluate depressive-like traits. Using immunohistochemical and computer image analysis, microglial distribution, morphology,and neuronal maturation were analyzed in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus.Results show a different response to SDS in both sexes. Microglial morphological activation was enhanced in the subgranular cell layer of the male dentategyrus, yet it was not affected in females. In turn, both sexes showed lower neurogenesis, especially in the supra cell layer. Strikingly, female miceneurogenesis was affected in earlier stages of maturation, whereas males showed greater alteration in later maturation steps. In male mice, thisimpairment was statistically mediated by the microglia, unlike in females where microglia seemed unrelated. Also, males showed a deeper social disability,whereas females had a greater anhedonic profile.As a conclusion, female and male mice responding differently to stress proved that our current approach to depression might need to change to adapt todifferential alterations in both sexes.
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/31876
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/31876
LA eng
NO Comunicación tipo póster a congreso internacional de la Federación Europea de Neurociencia.
NO Funding: PID2020-117464RB-I00//UMA20-FEDERJA-112//P20_00460//FPU19/03629// FPU21/01318// FPU16/05308
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 ene 2026