ArticleCurrent neuropharmacology2023
The Wistar Kyoto Rat: A Model of Depression Traits.
Article in Current neuropharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Wistar-Kyoto rat as a model relevant to inattentive ADHD: substrain variability and affective comorbidity.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2026Review
- NADPH oxidase-1 suppression prolongs the antidepressant-like effect of ketamine.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Divergent behavioral strategies in Wistar and Wistar-Kyoto rats in a naturalistic task reveal mood disorder phenotypes.iScience · 2026Article
- Differential Effects of Oleoyl Serine and HU-910 on Anxiety-like and Depression-like Behaviors in Male and Female WKY Rats.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Psychedelics produce enduring behavioral effects and functional plasticity through mechanisms independent of structural plasticity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Diurnal behavioral outcomes and BBB integrity in adult male SHR and WKY rats.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Unraveling psilocybin's therapeutic potential: behavioral and neuroplasticity insights in Wistar-Kyoto and Wistar male rat models of treatment-resistant depression.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- A Mutation in the Transmembrane Domain of Adenylate Cyclase 3 Impairs Enzymatic Function to Cause Sex-Specific Depression- and Anxiety-Like Behaviors and Food Seeking in a Rat Model.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2025Article
- Protein-coding mutation in Adcy3 increases adiposity and alters emotional behaviors sex-dependently in rats.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Electroacupuncture improves depression with constipation by balancing gut microbiota in WKY rats.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Rat Models in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Research: Strengths, Limitations, and Implications for Translational Studies.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2024Review
- Female Wistar Kyoto More Immobile rats with genetic stress hyper-reactivity show enhanced contextual fear memory without deficit in extinction of fear.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Article
- The impact of long-term isolation on anxiety, depressive-like and social behavior in aging Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) male rats.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Stress enhances aggression in male rats with genetic stress hyper-reactivity.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2024Article
- Protein-coding mutation inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Memory deficits and hippocampal cytokine expression in a rat model of ADHD.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- The WMI Rat of Premature Cognitive Aging Presents Intrinsic Vulnerability to Oxidative Stress in Primary Neurons and Astrocytes Compared to Its Nearly Isogenic WLI Control.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Preclinical models of treatment-resistant depression: challenges and perspectives.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2023Review
- The Power of the Heterogeneous Stock Rat Founder Strains in Modeling Metabolic Disease.Endocrinology · 2023Article
- Changes in environmental stress over COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to failure to replicate adiposity phenotype associated withPhysiological genomics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate about the value of animal research in psychiatry with valid lines of reasoning stating the limits of individual animal models compared to human psychiatric illnesses. Human depression is not a homogenous disorder; therefore, one cannot expect a single animal model to reflect depression heterogeneity. This limited review presents arguments that the Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats show intrinsic depression traits. The phenotypes of WKY do not completely mirror those of human depression but clearly indicate characteristics that are common with it. WKYs present despair- like behavior, passive coping with stress, comorbid anxiety, and enhanced drug use compared to other routinely used inbred or outbred strains of rats. The commonly used tests identifying these phenotypes reflect exploratory, escape-oriented, and withdrawal-like behaviors. The WKYs consistently choose withdrawal or avoidance in novel environments and freezing behaviors in response to a challenge in these tests. The physiological response to a stressful environment is exaggerated in WKYs. Selective breeding generated two WKY substrains that are nearly isogenic but show clear behavioral differences, including that of depression-like behavior. WKY and its substrains may share characteristics of subgroups of depressed individuals with social withdrawal, low energy, weight loss, sleep disturbances, and specific cognitive dysfunction. The genomes of the WKY and WKY substrains contain variations that impact the function of many genes identified in recent human genetic studies of depression. Thus, these strains of rats share characteristics of human depression at both phenotypic and genetic levels, making them a model of depression traits.
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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.