PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Maya Lebow
AU  - Adi Neufeld-Cohen
AU  - Yael Kuperman
AU  - Michael Tsoory
AU  - Shosh Gil
AU  - Alon Chen
TI  - Susceptibility to PTSD-Like Behavior Is Mediated by Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptor Type 2 Levels in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4012-11.2012
DP  - 2012 May 16
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 6906--6916
VI  - 32
IP  - 20
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/20/6906.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/20/6906.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2012 May 16; 32
AB  - Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disease, which affects 8–10% of the population exposed to traumatic events. The factors that make certain individuals susceptible to PTSD and others resilient are currently unknown. Corticotropin-releasing factor receptor type 2 (CRFR2) has been implicated in mediating stress coping mechanisms. Here, we use a physiological PTSD-like animal model and an in-depth battery of tests that reflect the symptomology of PTSD to separate mice into subpopulations of “PTSD-like” and “Resilient” phenotypes. PTSD-like mice are hypervigilant, hyperalert, insomniac, have impaired attention and risk assessment, as well as accompanying attenuated corticosterone levels. Intriguingly, PTSD-like mice show long-term robust upregulation of BNST-CRFR2 mRNA levels, and BNST-CRFR2-specific lentiviral knockdown reduces susceptibility to PTSD-like behavior. Additionally, using a BNST mRNA expression array, PTSD-like mice exhibit a general transcriptional attenuation profile, which was associated with upregulation of the BNST-deacetylation enzyme, HDAC5. We suggest PTSD to be a disease of maladaptive coping.