Seminar: "Effects of Chronic Stress on Avoidance Behavior in Estrogen Receptor Alpha Knockout (ERKO) Mice" - Victoria Appel

Endocrinology and Animal Biosciences Graduate Student Thesis Defense Seminar

"Effects of Chronic Stress on Avoidance Behavior in Estrogen Receptor Alpha Knockout (ERKO) Mice"

Speaker: Victoria Appel
MS Student
Graduate Program in Endocrinology and Animal Biosciences, Rutgers

Synopsis: Chronic stress has long been implicated in the development of mood disorders. Research has demonstrated that cisgender women are more susceptible than cisgender men to developing such conditions, and that these sex differences may, in part, be attributed to endocrine pathways. The mechanisms behind these pathways are progressively being elucidated, with focus on estrogen signaling. Using estrogen receptor alpha knockout (ERKO) mice, we examined the role of chronic stress on avoidance behavior across the sexes. Experimental mice underwent seven weeks of chronic social instability stress (CSIS), while control mice were not stressed. Four behavior tests were used to assess avoidance behavior: the open field test, elevated plus maze, light-dark test, and novelty suppressed feeding. Our results demonstrate little anxiogenic effect of social stress on behavior when compared to our results using the chronic variable mild stress (CVMS) paradigm. These findings suggest that social and physiological stressors are processed differently, and that estrogen receptors play a significant role in this differential mediation. This work lends itself to further investigation into the intersection of chronic stress and steroid hormone signaling pathways.