Follicle-stimulating Hormone Induces Depression-like Phenotype by Affecting Synaptic Function

Overview

Journal Front Mol Neurosci

Specialty Molecular Biology

Date 2024 Nov 5

PMID 39498265

Authors

Liqin Huang

Shangqi Sun

Gege Jiang

Guanfeng Xie

Yunying Yang

Sichun Chen

Jiaying Luo

Chen Lv

Xiang Li

Jianming Liao

Zhihao Wang

Zhaohui Zhang

Jing Xiong

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common affective disorders in people's life. Women are susceptibility to depression during puberty, peripartum and menopause transition, when they are suffering from sex hormone fluctuation. A lot of studies have demonstrated the neuroprotective effect of estrogen on depression in women, however, the effect of FSH on depression is unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of FSH on depression in mice. Our study demonstrated that FSH induced depression-like behaviors in mice in a dose-dependent manner. This induction was associated with elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF- in both serum and hippocampal tissues. Additionally, FSH treatment resulted in impaired synaptic plasticity and a reduction in the expression of key synaptic proteins. It is noteworthy that the depression-like behaviors, inflammatory cytokines expression and synaptic plasticity impairment induced by FSH could be alleviated by knocking down the expression of FSH receptor (FSHR) in the hippocampus of the mice. Therefore, our findings reveal that FSH may play an important role in the pathogenesis of depression and targeting FSH may be a potential therapeutic strategy for depression during hormone fluctuation in women.

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