Abstract
The etiology of major depression (MDD), a common and complex disorder, remains obscure. Gene expression profiling was conducted on post-mortem brain tissue samples from Brodmann Area 10 (BA10) in the prefrontal cortex from psychotropic drug-free persons with a history of MDD and age, gender, and post-mortem interval-matched normal controls (n=14 pairs of subjects). Microarray analysis was conducted using the Affymetrix Exon 1.0 ST arrays. A set of differential expression changes was determined by dual-fold change-probability criteria (∣average log ratios∣>0.585 [equivalent to a 1.5-fold difference in either direction], P<0.01), whereas molecular pathways of interest were evaluated using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis software. The results strongly implicate increased apoptotic stress in the samples from the MDD group. Three anti-apoptotic factors, Y-box-binding protein 1, caspase-1 dominant-negative inhibitor pseudo-ICE, and the putative apoptosis inhibitor FKGS2, were over-expressed. Gene set analysis suggested up-regulation of a variety of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin 1α (IL-1α), IL-2, IL-3, IL-5, IL-8, IL-9, IL-10, IL-12A, IL-13, IL-15, IL-18, interferon gamma (IFNγ), and lymphotoxin α (TNF superfamily member 1). The genes showing reduced expression included metallothionein 1M (MT1M), a zinc-binding protein with a significant function in the modulation of oxidative stress. The results of this study indicate that post-mortem brain tissue samples from BA10, a region that is involved in reward-related behavior, show evidence of local inflammatory, apoptotic, and oxidative stress in MDD.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Phil Ebert (currently with Eli Lilly) for help with data analysis and Dr Christine Konradi for advising the microarray experiments. The project described was supported by grant Award Numbers MH073630 (RCS), MH079299 (KM), MH070786 (KM), and MH084053 (DAL) from the National Institute of Mental Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIMH or the National Institutes of Health.
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Shelton, R., Claiborne, J., Sidoryk-Wegrzynowicz, M. et al. Altered expression of genes involved in inflammation and apoptosis in frontal cortex in major depression. Mol Psychiatry 16, 751–762 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2010.52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2010.52
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