Loading...
Many hypotheses about pathophysiology are deduced from observed actions of medications. For example, observations that antidepressants inhibit neurotransmitter uptake led to theories of neurotransmitter deficiencies in depression. Recently, researchers found that antidepressants induce the gene and the protein for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and that BDNF has antidepressant actions in animals. To disentangle cause from effect, these investigators used mutant mice and an animal model of depression-like behaviors.
Because complete elimination of BDNF is fatal, its gene was selectively knocked out with a viral vector stereotactically inserted into the hippocampus, either the CA1 (which is not altered by antidepressant treatment) or…