期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2012
卷号：109
期号：40
页码：16330-16335
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1119261109
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is critical for the endocrine, autonomic, and behavioral responses to stressors, and it has been shown to modulate fear and anxiety. The CRF receptor is widely expressed across a variety of cell types, impeding progress toward understanding the contribution of specific CRF-containing neurons to fear dysregulation. We used a unique CRF-Cre driver transgenic mouse line to remove floxed GABA(A)1 subunits specifically from CRF neurons [CRF-GABA(A)1 KO]. This process resulted in mice with decreased GABA(A)1 expression only in CRF neurons and increased CRF mRNA within the amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. These mice show normal locomotor and pain responses and no difference in depressive-like behavior or Pavlovian fear conditioning. However, CRF-GABA(A)1 KO increased anxiety-like behavior and impaired extinction of conditioned fear, coincident with an increase in plasma corticosterone concentration. These behavioral impairments were rescued with systemic or BNST infusion of the CRF antagonist R121919. Infusion of Zolpidem, a GABA(A)1-preferring benzodiazepine-site agonist, into the BNST of the CRF-GABA(A)1 KO was ineffective at decreasing anxiety. Electrophysiological findings suggest a disruption in inhibitory current may play a role in these changes. These data indicate that disturbance of CRF containing GABA(A)1 neurons causes increased anxiety and impaired fear extinction, both of which are symptoms diagnostic for anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.
关键词：central amygdala ; plasticity ; HPA axis ; short term synaptic depression ; knockout
