Synaptoproteomic Analysis of a Rat Gene-Environment Model of Depression Reveals Involvement of Energy Metabolism and Cellular Remodeling Pathways

BACKGROUND: Major depression is a severe mental illness that causes heavy social and economic burdens worldwide. A number of studies have shown that interaction between individual genetic vulnerability and environmental risk factors, such as stress, is crucial in psychiatric pathophysiology. In particular, the experience of stressful events in childhood, such as neglect, abuse, or parental loss, was found to increase the risk for development of depression in adult life. Here, to reproduce the gene x environment interaction, we employed an animal model that combines genetic vulnerability with early-life stress. METHODS: The Flinders Sensitive Line rats (FSL), a validated genetic animal model of depression, and the Flinders Resistant Line (FRL) rats, their controls, were subjected to a standard protocol of maternal separation (MS) from postnatal days 2 to 14. A basal comparison between the two lines for the outcome of the environmental manipulation was performed at postnatal day 73, when the rats were into adulthood. We carried out a global proteomic analysis of purified synaptic terminals (synaptosomes), in order to study a subcellular compartment enriched in proteins involved in synaptic function. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), mass spectrometry, and bioinformatic analysis were used to analyze proteins and related functional networks that were modulated by genetic susceptibility (FSL vs. FRL) or by exposure to early-life stress (FRL + MS vs. FRL and FSL + MS vs. FSL). RESULTS: We found that, at a synaptic level, mainly proteins and molecular pathways related to energy metabolism and cellular remodeling were dysregulated. CONCLUSIONS: The present results, in line with previous works, suggest that dysfunction of energy metabolism and cytoskeleton dynamics at a synaptic level could be features of stress-related pathologies, in particular major depression.