Stress induces altered CRE/CREB pathway activity and BDNF expression in the hippocampus of glucocorticoid receptor-impaired mice

The gene coding for the neurotrophin Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is a stress-responsive gene. Changes in its expression may underlie some of the pathological effects of stress-related disorders like depression. Data on the stress-induced regulation of the expression of BDNF in pathological conditions are rare because often research is conducted using healthy animals. In our experiments, we used transgenic mice with glucocorticoid receptor impaired (GR-i) expression in the hypothalamus created as a tool to study the neuroendocrine changes occurring in stress-related disorders. First, under basal condition, GR-i mice displayed lower levels of BDNF exons IX and IV and decreased CRE(BDNF) binding activity with respect to wild-type (WT) mice in the hippocampus. Then, we exposed GR-i and WT mice to an acute restraint stress (ARS) to test the hypothesis that GR-i mice display: 1] different ARS induced expression of BDNF, and 2] altered activation of signaling pathways implicated in regulating BDNF gene expression in the hippocampus with respect to WT mice. Results indicate that ARS enhanced BDNF mRNA expression mainly in the CA3 hippocampal sub-region of GR-i mice in the presence of enhanced levels of pro-BDNF protein, while no effect was observed in WT mice. Moreover, ARS reduced CREB signaling and binding to the BDNF promoter in GR-i mice but enhanced signaling and binding, possibly through ERK1/2 activation, in WT mice. Thus, life-long central GR dysfunction resulted in an altered sensitivity at the transcriptional level that may underlie an impaired response to an acute psycho-physical stress. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled ‘Trends in Neuropharmacology: In Memory of Erminio Costa’. ► Glucocorticoid receptor impaired mice display reduced hippocampal BDNF transcripts. ► Acute restraint stress enhances BDNF mRNA in the CA3 of the hippocampus in GR-i Mice. ► ARS reduces CREB binding to the BDNF promoter in GR-i but not in WT mice. ► In WT mice, ARS enhances binding, possibly through the activation of ERK1/2. ► GR dysfunction underlies an impaired response to stress at the transcriptional level.