Ventral CA3 Activation Mediates Prophylactic Ketamine Efficacy Against Stress-Induced Depressive-Like Behavior
Biological Psychiatry February 23, 2018 Alessia Mastrodonato, Randy Martinez, Ina P. Pavlova et al.
A single prophylactic injection of ketamine (30 mg/kg) given to mice one week before social defeat stress increased ΔFosB expression in the ventral dentate gyrus and ventral CA3 of the hippocampus in stressed but not control mice. Silencing ΔFosB activity in vCA3 blocked ketamine's protective effects, while overexpressing ΔFosB mimicked and occluded those effects. Ketamine also altered memory traces representing a fear conditioning experience in vCA3. The findings suggest prophylactic ketamine may protect against stressors by modifying neural ensembles in vCA3.