Abstract
In the present study, we used three strains of mice with various susceptibility to stress: mice with knock-out of the gene encoding norepinephrine transporter (NET-KO), which are well characterized as displaying a stress-resistant phenotype, as well as two strains of mice displaying two different stress-coping strategies, i.e., C57BL/6J (WT in the present study) and SWR/J. The procedure of restraint stress (RS, 4 h) was applied, and the following behavioral experiments (the forced swim test and sucrose preference test) indicated that NET-KO and SWR/J mice were less sensitive to RS than WT mice. Then, we aimed to find the miRNAs which changed in similar ways in the serum of NET-KO and SWR/J mice subjected to RS, being at the same time different from the miRNAs found in the serum of WT mice. Using Custom TaqMan Array MicroRNA Cards, with primers for majority of miRNAs expressed in the serum (based on a preliminary experiment using the TaqMan Array Rodent MicroRNA A + B Cards Set v3.0, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) allowed the identification of 21 such miRNAs. Our further analysis focused on miR-1 and miR-155 and their targets—these two miRNAs are involved in the regulation of BDNF expression and can be regarded as biomarkers of stress-resilience.
Highlights
Stress is defined as conditions that seriously perturb the psychological and physiological balance of an individual
Sucrose preference test (SPT), and the obtained results indicated that the response observed upon antidepressant drugs administration to WT animals [7]
Immobility time during the forced swim test (FST) of the control norepinephrine transporter knock-out (NET-KO) mice was significantly reduced compared with WT control animals
Summary
Stress is defined as conditions that seriously perturb the psychological and physiological balance of an individual. The impact of stressful life events on physical and psychological well-being is highly variable, and does not affect everyone in the same manner; there are susceptible individuals who poorly adapt to stressors and express inappropriate responses that can become persistent states of stress, while resilient individuals can perceive adversity and develop adaptive psychological and physiological responses [1]. Coping refers to alternative response patterns that occur in reaction to a challenging environment, and coping strategies are essential to minimize the impact of stress and determine the degree of resilience and susceptibility. As the biological basis of stress response is not clearly defined, the same concerns coping strategies [2]. The idea of microRNAs (miRNAs) as mediators of the brain genomic response to stress is quite new, recently many studies have been devoted to this subject, and various miRNAs or miRNAs families have been shown to be regulated in response to different kinds of stress [3,4,5,6], and they
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