Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior
Abstract Experiencing a single severe stressor is sufficient to drive sexually dimorphic psychiatric disease development. The ventral subiculum (vSUB) emerges as a site where stress may induce sexually dimorphic adaptations due to its sex-specific organization and pivotal role in stress integration....
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
|
| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60512-y |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849402144799588352 |
|---|---|
| author | Carley N. Miller Yuan Li Kevin T. Beier Jason Aoto |
| author_facet | Carley N. Miller Yuan Li Kevin T. Beier Jason Aoto |
| author_sort | Carley N. Miller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Experiencing a single severe stressor is sufficient to drive sexually dimorphic psychiatric disease development. The ventral subiculum (vSUB) emerges as a site where stress may induce sexually dimorphic adaptations due to its sex-specific organization and pivotal role in stress integration. Using a 1 h acute restraint stress model in mice, we uncover that stress causes a net decrease in vSUB activity in females driven by adrenergic receptor signaling. By contrast, males exhibit a net increase in vSUB activity that is driven by corticosterone signaling. We further identified sexually dimorphic changes in vSUB output to the anterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and in anxiety-like behaviors in response to stress. These findings reveal striking changes in psychiatric disease-relevant brain regions and behavior following stress with sex-, cell-type, and synapse-specificity that contribute to our understanding of sexually dimorphic adaptations that may shape stress-related psychiatric disease risk. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c57f62416dab49999fdcc666d29fb6f8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-c57f62416dab49999fdcc666d29fb6f82025-08-20T03:37:37ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-07-0116112010.1038/s41467-025-60512-yAcute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behaviorCarley N. Miller0Yuan Li1Kevin T. Beier2Jason Aoto3Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusDepartment of Physiology and Biophysics, University of CaliforniaDepartment of Physiology and Biophysics, University of CaliforniaDepartment of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusAbstract Experiencing a single severe stressor is sufficient to drive sexually dimorphic psychiatric disease development. The ventral subiculum (vSUB) emerges as a site where stress may induce sexually dimorphic adaptations due to its sex-specific organization and pivotal role in stress integration. Using a 1 h acute restraint stress model in mice, we uncover that stress causes a net decrease in vSUB activity in females driven by adrenergic receptor signaling. By contrast, males exhibit a net increase in vSUB activity that is driven by corticosterone signaling. We further identified sexually dimorphic changes in vSUB output to the anterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and in anxiety-like behaviors in response to stress. These findings reveal striking changes in psychiatric disease-relevant brain regions and behavior following stress with sex-, cell-type, and synapse-specificity that contribute to our understanding of sexually dimorphic adaptations that may shape stress-related psychiatric disease risk.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60512-y |
| spellingShingle | Carley N. Miller Yuan Li Kevin T. Beier Jason Aoto Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior Nature Communications |
| title | Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior |
| title_full | Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior |
| title_fullStr | Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior |
| title_full_unstemmed | Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior |
| title_short | Acute stress causes sex-specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses, circuitry, and anxiety-like behavior |
| title_sort | acute stress causes sex specific changes to ventral subiculum synapses circuitry and anxiety like behavior |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60512-y |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carleynmiller acutestresscausessexspecificchangestoventralsubiculumsynapsescircuitryandanxietylikebehavior AT yuanli acutestresscausessexspecificchangestoventralsubiculumsynapsescircuitryandanxietylikebehavior AT kevintbeier acutestresscausessexspecificchangestoventralsubiculumsynapsescircuitryandanxietylikebehavior AT jasonaoto acutestresscausessexspecificchangestoventralsubiculumsynapsescircuitryandanxietylikebehavior |