ArticleBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2021
Uncovering microglial pathways driving sex-specific neurobiological effects in stress and depression.
Article in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multimodal microglial and kynurenine pathway alterations across the affective-psychosis spectrum: a systematic review of patterns, heterogeneity, and dimensional implications.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Cell type specific transcriptomic differences in depression show similar patterns between males and females but implicate distinct cell types and genes.Nature communications · 2023Pooled it
- Peripartum Depression as a Heart-Brain-Endocrine-Immune Syndrome: Neuroendocrine, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Pathways Underlying Maternal Vulnerability.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Neuroinflammation and the Female Brain: Sex-Specific Mechanisms Underlying Mood Disorders and Stress Vulnerability.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Deletion of the X-chromosomal geneScience translational medicine · 2025Article
- Altered m6A RNA methylation profiles in depression implicate the dysregulation of discrete cellular functions in males and females.iScience · 2024Article
- Sex Differences in Depression: Insights from Multimodal Gray Matter Morphology and Peripheral Inflammatory Factors.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Considering the role of estradiol in the psychoneuroimmunology of perimenopausal depression.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Stress and Microglia: A Double-edged Relationship.Advances in neurobiology · 2024Review
- The role of the Toll like receptor 4 signaling in sex-specific persistency of depression-like behavior in response to chronic stress.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
- The Effect of Pregabalin on Microglia Differentiation in Rat with Neuropathic pain: A Preliminary Study.International journal of medical sciences · 2024Article
- Looking Back to Move Forward: Research in Stress, Behavior, and Immune Function.Neuroimmunomodulation · 2024Review
- Microglial P2Y12 mediates chronic stress-induced synapse loss in the prefrontal cortex and associated behavioral consequences.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Implication of the PTN/RPTPβ/ζ Signaling Pathway in Acute Ethanol Neuroinflammation in Both Sexes: A Comparative Study with LPS.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Microglia-specific transcriptional repression of interferon-regulated genes after prolonged stress in mice.Neurobiology of stress · 2022Article
- Microglia involvement in sex-dependent behaviors and schizophrenia occurrence in offspring with maternal dexamethasone exposure.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2022Article
- Sex differences in stress-induced alcohol intake: a review of preclinical studies focused on amygdala and inflammatory pathways.Psychopharmacology · 2022Review
- Editorial commentary on the special issue emerging psychoneuroimmunology research: Future leaders in focus.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Women suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD) more often than men and report greater MDD symptom severity. Mounting evidence suggests that sex differences in MDD may be driven, in part, by sex-specific neurobiological mechanisms. Chronic stress is a significant risk factor in MDD, and preclinical rodent models show differential patterns of stress-induced neural remodeling and cognitive-behavioral dysfunction in males and females. For instance, chronic stress leads to synapse loss in the medial prefrontal cortex in male rodents yet has either no effect on- or increases-synapse number in females. Recent reports have implicated microglia, the immune cells of the brain, in MDD, and findings demonstrate sex-specific microglial signatures in both preclinical stress models and MDD patients. Given that microglia can remodel neural architecture, modulate synaptic transmission, and affect subsequent changes in behavior, it is plausible that microglial pathways contribute to differential stress effects on neuroplasticity and function in males and females. As such, this review examines the evidence for sex-specific microglia-neuron interactions in preclinical stress models and in patients with MDD. Discoveries highlighted herein demonstrate divergent microglial contributions in males and females and suggest that future studies investigating stress-linked disorders should be guided by sex-dependent neurobiological and behavioral findings. Examining these pathways represents a clear avenue toward both a richer understanding of brain, behavior, and immunity, and innovative psychoneuroimmunology-based applications in personalized medicine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.