Aberrant Expression of Collagen Gene Family in the Brain Regions of Male Mice with Behavioral Psychopathologies Induced by Chronic Agonistic Interactions

https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/7276389

Chronic agonistic interactions promote the development of experimental psychopathologies in animals: a depression-like state in chronically defeated mice and the pathology of aggressive behavior in the mice with repeated wins. The abundant research data indicate that such psychopathological states are associated with significant molecular and cellular changes in the brain.This paper aims to study the influence of a 20-day period of agonistic interactions on the expression patterns of collagen family genes encoding the proteins which are basic components of extracellularmatrix (ECM) in different brain regions ofmice using the RNASeq database. Most of differentially expressed collagen genes were shown to be upregulated in the hypothalamus and striatum of chronically aggressive and defeated mice and in the hippocampus of defeated mice, whereas downregulation of collagen genes was demonstrated in the ventral tegmental areas in both experimental groups. Aberrant expression of collagen genes induced by chronic agonistic interactionsmay be indicative of specific ECMdefects in the brain regions of mice with alternative social experience. This is the first study demonstrating remodeling of ECM under the development of experimental disorders.