University of Science and Technology of China Neuron analyzes the mechanism of early inflammation-induced depression in adolescence

Inflammation in the early stages of life, such as trauma and viral infection during pregnancy or childhood, significantly increases the risk of an individual suffering from affective disorders including depression during adolescence or adulthood , and the mechanism of its occurrence is still unclear

Clinical studies have shown that the ACC synaptic density in the brain of depressed patients decreases and the level of inflammation increases

Zhang Zhi’s research group, Department of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, has long been committed to the study of the structure and plasticity of neural circuits in neurological diseases.

Recently, Zhang Zhi/ Jin Yan’s research team and the Xu Lin team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that early life inflammation causes the microglia of the anterior cingulate cortex ( ACC ) of individuals to be vulnerable to random stress events in life during adolescent development.

 The paper established an inflammation model through intraperitoneal administration of lipopolysaccharide ( LPS ) during the key time window of mouse brain development (14 days after birth ) , and explored the ACC microglia during the development of mice from infancy to puberty ( 45 days after birth ) .

Neuronal activity-dependent activity changes control the output of animal behavioral phenotypes

Pattern diagram: Inflammation in early life increases the phagocytosis of neuronal dendritic spines by ACC microglia, leading to depression-like behavior in adolescent mice

China HKUST PhD Life Sciences and Medicine, Cao Peng and Chenchang Mao Ph.

Link to the paper: https://doi.