ArticleBiological psychiatry2025
Astrocytic CREB in Nucleus Accumbens Promotes Susceptibility to Chronic Stress.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early life experiences, the neural epigenome and affective disorder risk.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Stress-induced motivational impairment is marked by diminished frontocortical cellular communication and neuropeptide signaling.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cell Type-Specific Downregulation of Dnmt3a in Nucleus Accumbens Oligodendrocytes Prevents Myelin Damage and Reduces Susceptibility to Social Stress in Male Mice.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Review
- Astrocytic CREB regulates transcriptomic, neuronal, and behavioral responses to cocaine.Science advances · 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
- Counterbalancing O-GlcNAcylation and STAT3 Phosphorylation in Ventral Tegmental Area Dopaminergic Neurons Mediates Behavioral Adaptations to Acute Restraint Stress.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- How dopamine guides our social world.Pharmacological reviews · 2025Review
- Transcriptional characterization of cocaine withdrawal versus extinction within nucleus accumbens in male rats.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIncreasing evidence implicates astrocytes in stress and depression in both rodent models and human major depressive disorder. Despite this, little is known about the transcriptional responses to stress of astrocytes within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain reward region, and their influence on behavioral outcomes.
methodsWe used whole-cell sorting, RNA sequencing, and bioinformatic analyses to investigate the NAc astrocyte transcriptome in male mice in response to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS). Immunohistochemistry was used to determine stress-induced changes in astrocytic CREB (cAMP response element binding protein) within the NAc. Finally, astrocytic regulation of depression-like behavior was investigated using viral-mediated manipulation of CREB in combination with CSDS.
resultsWe found a robust transcriptional response in NAc astrocytes to CSDS in stressed mice, with changes seen in both stress-susceptible and stress-resilient animals. Bioinformatic analysis revealed CREB, a transcription factor widely studied in neurons, as one of the top-predicted upstream regulators of the NAc astrocyte transcriptome, with opposite activation states implicated in resilient versus susceptible mice. This bioinformatic deduction was confirmed at the protein level with immunohistochemistry. Moreover, NAc astrocyte morphological complexity correlated with CREB activation and was reduced selectively in astrocytes of resilient mice. Viral overexpression of CREB selectively in NAc astrocytes promoted susceptibility to chronic stress.
conclusionsTogether, our data demonstrate that the astrocyte transcriptome responds robustly to CSDS and that transcriptional regulation in astrocytes contributes to depressive-like behaviors. A better understanding of transcriptional regulation in astrocytes may reveal unknown molecular mechanisms underlying 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.