ArticleNeurochemical research2023
Chronic Stress Impairs the Structure and Function of Astrocyte Networks in an Animal Model of Depression.
Article in Neurochemical research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of caffeine on neuroinflammation in anxiety and depression: a systematic review of rodent studies.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Cannabinoid use generalizes stress responses: involvement of astrocyte plasticity and activation of matrix metalloproteinases in the nucleus accumbens core.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Gut Microbiota-Astrocyte Axis: New Insights into the Mechanisms of Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Adolescent alcohol exposure disrupts astrocyte-synaptic structural and functional coupling in the male dorsal hippocampus.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Curing the brain: in search for new astrocyte-specific therapies.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Prolonged social isolation promotes depressive-like behavior in male and female mice, with sex-related differences in the stress response.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Behavioral and Neurobiological Correlates of Resilience in the Hindlimb Unloading Mouse Model: A Longitudinal Ethogram with Neurotrophin Profile.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Astrocyte Ezrin defines resilience to stress-induced depressive behaviours in mice.National science review · 2026Article
- A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Chronic Stress on the Prefrontal Transcriptome in Animal Models and Convergence with Existing Human Data.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Chronic Stress and Astrocyte Dysfunction in Depression: Molecular Mechanisms and Gene Expression Changes.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Gestational stress disrupts the neuroimmune environment in the nucleus accumbens of maternal rats.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Chlorogenic Acid Alleviates the Detrimental Effects of Concurrent Hyperglycemia and Chronic Stress on Brain Homeostasis by Modulating Antioxidative Defense in Adult Zebrafish.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Role of astrocyte in neuroinflammation-induced loss in neuroplasticity and subsequent onset of depression: A systematic review.Neuroprotection (Chichester, England) · 2025Review
- Stress-induced dysfunction of neurovascular astrocytes in the prefrontal cortex contributes to sex-dependent deficits in cognition and behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- When the Stars Misfire: Astrocytic Dysfunctions in Major Depressive Disorder.Neurochemical research · 2025Review
- Astrocytic CREB in Nucleus Accumbens Promotes Susceptibility to Chronic Stress.Biological psychiatry · 2025Article
- High urea promotes mitochondrial fission and functional impairments in astrocytes inducing anxiety-like behavior in chronic kidney disease mice.Metabolic brain disease · 2025Article
- Revealing and Characterizing Astrocytic Atrophy in an Animal Model of Depression.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Neuroglia in cognitive reserve.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- Ginsenoside Rg1: A Neuroprotective Natural Dammarane-Type Triterpenoid Saponin With Anti-Depressive Properties.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Now astrocytes appear to be the key contributors to the pathophysiology of major depression. Evidence in rodents shows that chronic stress is associated with a decreased expression of astrocytic GFAP-immunoreactivity within the cortex in addition to changes in the complexity and length of astrocyte processes. Furthermore, postmortem brains of individuals with depression have revealed a decrease in astrocyte density. Notably, astrocytes are extensively coupled to one another through gap junctions to form a network, or syncytium, and we have previously demonstrated that syncytial isopotentiality is a mechanism by which astrocytes function as an efficient system with respect to brain homeostasis. Interestingly, the question of how astrocyte network function changes following chronic stress is yet to be elucidated. Here, we sought to examine the effects of chronic stress on network-level astrocyte (dys)function. Using a transgenic aldh1l1-eGFP astrocyte reporter mouse, a six-week unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) paradigm as a rodent model of major depression, and immunohistochemical approaches, we show that the morphology of individual astrocytes is altered by chronic stress exposure. Additionally, in astrocyte syncytial isopotentiality measurement, we found that UCMS impairs the syncytial coupling strength of astrocytes within the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex-two brain regions that have been implicated in the regulation of mood. Together, these findings reveal that chronic stress leads to astrocyte atrophy and impaired gap junction coupling, raising the prospect that both individual and network-level astrocyte functionality are important in the etiology of major depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.