Chronic psychotropic drug treatment causes differential expression of connexin 43 and GFAP in frontal cortex of rats

S. Hossein Fatemi, Timothy D. Folsom, Teri J. Reutiman, Twinkle Pandian, Natalie N. Braun, Kari Haug

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

53 Scopus citations

Abstract

Astrocytic markers glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and connexin 43 (CX43) are known to have altered expression in brains of subjects with psychiatric disorders including autism and major depression. The current study investigated whether GFAP and CX43 expressions are affected by several commonly used psychotropic medications (clozapine, fluoxetine, haloperidol, lithium, olanzapine, and valproic acid). Using SDS-PAGE and western blotting technique, we observed that CX43 protein expression in prefrontal cortex was significantly increased following chronic treatment with fluoxetine and clozapine, while it was significantly decreased by haloperidol and lithium. GFAP protein expression was significantly decreased following chronic treatment with clozapine and valproic acid. These results suggest that astroglial markers GFAP and CX43 could be potential targets for therapeutic intervention.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)127-134
Number of pages8
JournalSchizophrenia research
Volume104
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2008

Keywords

  • Autism
  • Connexin 43
  • GFAP
  • Prefrontal cortex
  • Rat
  • Schizophrenia

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