Browsing by Subject "stress response"

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are over 200 bp long RNA molecules that are not translated into protein. LncRNAs can regulate the expression of protein coding genes, and studies have indicated their role in stress response. Stress response has also been associated with differences in the structure of the myelin sheaths in the mouse brain cortex. Myelin is produced by mature oligodendrocytes (OLGs), and therefore, OLGs are likely to play a role in stress response. The aim of this thesis was to find lncRNAs differentially expressed in the oligodendrocytes and myelin on the medial prefrontal cortex of stressed mice in comparison to controls. Mice of strains C57/6NCrl and DBA/2NCrl, differing in stress response, were exposed to chronic social defeat stress. After the stress paradigm, the mice were assigned as stress-susceptible or stress-resilient, the susceptible mice exhibiting anxiety-like behavior. RNA from OLGs and myelin from the medial prefrontal cortex of the mice was sequenced, and I compared the lncRNA expression levels between stressed and control mice and stress-susceptible and resilient mice using bioinformatic methods. I also assessed modules formed by lncRNAs and protein coding genes correlating in expression in both datasets. I used RT-qPCR to investigate if results from two differentially expressed lncRNAs, Gm37885 and Neat1, replicate in a stress hormone-treated oligodendrocyte cell line. Three hundred and seventy lncRNAs were differentially expressed between stressed mice and controls or stress-susceptible and resilient mice in the OLG dataset and 132 in the myelin dataset. Two hundred and 87 of them overlapped with a protein coding gene in the OLG and myelin datasets, respectively. Sixty-one percent of the differentially expressed lncRNAs were specific to comparisons in the OLG dataset and 73 % in the myelin dataset, but 39 % of the differentially expressed lncRNAs in the OLG dataset and 27 % in the myelin dataset were shared between them. No module of genes with correlating expression levels was associated with stress, but the expression levels of two correlation modules from each dataset differed between strains. The results for one of the differentially expressed lncRNAs, Gm37885, replicated in stressed Oli-neu cells in RT-qPCR. The results of my thesis indicate that multiple lncRNAs are involved in the mouse stress response, as many were differentially expressed and shared between phenotype comparisons. Additionally, significant gene expression differences were observed between strains, which could contribute to the previously reported strain differences in stress susceptibility. The results also suggest a specific role of Gm37885 in GR-mediated stress response. However, the function of Gm37885 remains unknown, and further studies regarding Gm37885 and the other differentially expressed lncRNAs should be carried out to draw conclusions of their contribution to the OLG-mediated stress response.