Subanesthetic ketamine exerts antidepressant-like effects in adult rats exposed to juvenile stress.
Katsuhiro Aikawa, Takayuki Yoshida, Yu Ohmura, K. Lyttle, M. Yoshioka, Y. Morimoto
Brain Research June 13, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146980 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractKetamine (10 mg/kg) reversed depression-like behaviors and brain changes in adult rats that had experienced juvenile stress. In the forced swim test, ketamine reduced the increased immobility caused by early stress. It also restored diminished excitatory postsynaptic currents and reversed atrophic changes in apical dendritic spines in layer V pyramidal cells of the prelimbic cortex, and corrected an impaired excitatory/inhibitory ratio of postsynaptic currents. These results suggest ketamine may be effective against depressive-like alterations stemming from juvenile stress.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Preclinical study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Adult rats that had been subjected to juvenile stress |
| Intervention | Ketamine |
| Dose | 10 mg/kg |
| Keywords | Medicine Psychology |
| Key finding | Ketamine (10 mg/kg) attenuated depressive-like behavior and reversed electrophysiological and morphological alterations in the prelimbic cortex caused by juvenile stress in rats. |
Abstract
Juvenile stress, like that caused by childhood maltreatment, is a significant risk factor for psychiatric disorders such as depression later in life. Recently, the antidepressant effect of ketamine, a noncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, has been widely investigated. However, little is known regarding its efficacy against depressive-like alterations caused by juvenile stress, which is clinically relevant in human depression. In the present study, we evaluated the antidepressant-like effect of ketamine in adult rats that had been subjected to juvenile stress. Depressive-like behavior was assessed using the forced swim test (FST), and electrophysiological and morphological alterations in the layer V pyramidal cells of the prelimbic cortex were examined using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings and subsequent recording-cell specific fluorescence imaging. We demonstrated that ketamine (10 mg/kg) attenuated the increased immobility time caused by juvenile stress in the FST, restored the diminished excitatory postsynaptic currents, and caused atrophic changes in the apical dendritic spines. Ketamine's effects reversing impaired excitatory/inhibitory ratio of postsynaptic currents were also revealed. These results indicated that ketamine could be effective in reversing the depression-like alterations caused by juvenile stress.