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Rat hippocampus with injected virus
This image shows a rat hippocampus, a region of the brain critical for learning, memory and emotion. The green cells show where researchers used an injected virus to block production of a protein called fibroblast growth factor 9 in rat brains and reduce anxiety-like behavior.
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The persistent feeling of sadness, a loss of interest, or feeling "less than normal" are phrases often used to describe depression. But a study by a team from the University of Michigan Medical School and the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium shows depression can sometimes mean too much of something: a protein called fibroblast growth factor 9, or FGF9. The discovery goes against previous findings that depressed brains often have less of key components than non-depressed brains.
In the study, people with major depression had 32 percent more of FGF9 in a key part of their brain than people without the condition. In rats, raising FGF9 levels artificially led to depression-like behavioral changes and repeated social stress caused brain FGF9 levels to rise.
Taken together, the findings provide more evidence that depression is a physical illness. If FGF9 or its effects prove to be a good target for drugs, the finding could eventually help lead to better medications for the mental health condition that affects millions of Americans.
"Fixing depression is not easy because it's a disorder at the level of the circuits that connect brain cells, and many regions of the brain are involved," says Elyse Aurbach, a neuroscience doctoral student and the co-first author of a paper published on the study. "Still, this is the first time FGF9 has been identified as related to depression, and found to be active in a critical area of the brain for the disorder. We and others need to study it further to determine what is going on. It's very exciting." Aurbach was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.
To learn more, see the NSF News From the Field story A new factor in depression? Brain protein discovery could lead to better treatments. (Date image taken: February 2014; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Nov. 25, 2015)
Credit: Elyse L. Aurbach, Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan
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