Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 265, Issue 3, 23 April 1999, Pages 151-154
Neuroscience Letters

Stress-induced changes of norepinephrine uptake sites in the locus coeruleus of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice: a quantitative autoradiographic study using [3H]-tomoxetine

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(99)00241-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Inbred C57BL/6J (C57) and DBA/2J (DBA) mice were subjected to open-field evaluation and Porsolt swim test after restraint stress. Norepinephrine (NE) uptake sites in the locus coeruleus (LC) of these inbred mice were studied by using [3H]-tomoxetine. Results showed that naive C57 mice were more active in the open field and possessed more NE uptake sites in the LC than naive DBA mice. Previous work has shown that restraint decreases open field activity in C57 mice, but not DBA mice, whereas the present study has demonstrated that, after restraint stress, C57 mice spent more time immobile than DBA mice did in the forced swim test. Furthermore, in these stressed animals, NE uptake sites in the LC were greatly increased with consistently more uptake sites in C57 mice. Collectively, results of this study and the literature suggest that enhanced NE function in the LC of C57 mice is associated with their susceptibility to stress-induced behavioral depression.

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Acknowledgements

This work was in part supported by PHS grant NS-25087. Special thanks go to Dr. Guoming Wang and Ms. Jaime Guntz for their technical assistance, and Mr. Kuolung Hu for his statistical analysis on the behavioral and neurochemical paradigms.

References (20)

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