P.1.021 Chronic administration of haloperidol in rats and its effect on microglial cell density and whole brain weight and volume

BDNF and TrkB in the hippocampus but not in the prefrontal cortex. The level of pCREB protein was decreased by 91% whereas the level of BDNF protein was decreased by 73% in the hippocampus of the zinc-deficient rats when compared with that of the control animals. At the same time point a decrease (by 40%) in TrkB protein was observed in the hippocampus of the zinc-deficient group compared to the control group. Conclusions: The previous studies indicated that dietary-induced zinc deficiency leads to the development of depressive like behaviour (e.g. increase in the immobility time in the forced swim test) and that experimentally induced zinc deficiency might be a model of depression. The present data suggests that pCREB, BDNF and TrkB expression is modulated by zinc deficiency and that the decreased expression of these proteins after dietary zinc deprivation is linked to the depressive like behaviour in the zinc deficiency paradigm. It seems that the hippocampus, the region of the brain that plays a critical role in neurogenesis, is more susceptible to the biochemical changes caused by zinc deficiency than the prefrontal cortex. This is consistent with data obtained during experiments where acute and chronic stress paradigms were found to decrease the expression of BDNF in the rodent hippocampus [1].