화학공학소재연구정보센터
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol.352, No.3, 780-786, 2007
Expression analysis of actin-related genes as an underlying mechanism for mood disorders
In this study, we explored the newly postulated 'disturbed cytoskeletal' theory of mood disorders. Firstly, we identified Cap1, a gene for important mediator of actin turnover, as a cogent quantitative trait gene for depressive trait of mice by combining the results of our prior genetic and current genome-wide expression analyses. Then we rigorously examined 'core' actin-related gene expression in the frontal cortex of C5713L/6 (136) (prone to depression) and C3H/He (C3) (resistant to depression) mice. We confirmed that Cap1 was down-regulated at both transcript and protein levels in B6. Other differentially regulated genes included cofilin I and profilin I (up-regulated in 136), and a Rho-family GTPase member (Pak1) (down-regulated in 136). Thirdly, we investigated the 'core' actin-pathway components in human postmortem prefrontal cortices, and observed trend for CAP1 reduction in the bipolar brains. These data suggest that the balance of actin dynamics might be altered towards actin depolymerization in mood disorders. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.