[The expression of galanin and galanin receptor-2 in the brain of chronic stress model of depression].

Abstract

The expression of galanin and galanin receptor-2 in hippocampus and dorsal raphe nucleus of depression model was studied. The chronic stress rat model was adopted as the modal of depression. Open-field test was used to observe the transformation of their behavior and HPLC-EC was employed to analysis the level of blood serum cortisol. The method of in situ hybridization was used for testing the expression of Galanin and galanin receptor-2 in hippocampus and dorsal raphe nucleus and the method of RT-PCR was used to further analysis of the expression. The results showed that the locomotion activity decreased extremely after chronic stress, but the level of serum cortisol increased evidently. The expression of Galanin and its receptor-2 in hippocampus and dorsal raphe nucleus increased obviously. The higher expression for galanin and galanin receptor-2 in some brain area suggested that galanin probably takes part in the modulation of the function of neurons during the stress process.