Faculty and Graduate Student data sets
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Item Social buffering of acute early life stress sex-dependently ameliorates fear incubation in adulthood
Reichert, Amanda; Riddle, Collin; Quinn, JenniferSocial buffering may reduce the persistent impacts of acute early life stress (aELS) and, thus, has important implications for anxiety- and trauma-related disorders. First, we assessed whether aELS would induce maladaptive fear incubation in adult mice, a PTSD-like phenotype. Overall, animals showed incubation of fear memory in adulthood independent of aELS condition. Next, we investigated whether social interaction with the dam and/or the littermates following the aELS session would eliminate adult fear incubation. Males demonstrated social buffering only if the dam was present, and females demonstrated social buffering only if the littermates were present. Finally, we assessed whether social buffering following aELS exposure reduces consolidation of the associative fear learning that occurs during the aELS session. Animals received aELS followed by isolation or social interaction (dam + littermates). Over the next four consecutive days, they received 30-minute exposures to the context (test/extinction). There were no differences between isolation and social interaction on contextual fear memory expression or its extinction. Taken together, these results indicate that social buffering reduces the impact of non-associative processes during aELS on subsequent adult fear memory in a sex-dependent manner, and further supports social buffering as an important intervention following early trauma experiences.Item 5-HT2C receptors in the BNST modulate contextual fear conditioning without affecting acute ELS-enhanced fear learning in adult rats
Minshall, Brianna; Wasylyshyn, Catherine; Brand, Kate; Bartoszek, Caroline; Seipel, Kennedy; Booms, Madeline; Chappell, Lucy; Reichert, Amanda; Dowell, Jacob; Buck, Angeles; Beckett, Henry; Lowry, Christopher; Quinn, JenniferAbstract: Background/Objectives: Rodents provide a useful translational model of fear- and anxiety-related behaviors. Previously stressed animals exhibit physiological and behavioral stress responses that parallel those observed in anxious humans. Patients diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) present with a spectrum of debilitating anxiety symptoms that result from exposure to one or more traumatic events, with women having increased vulnerability for diagnosis; however, the mechanisms of this increased vulnerability remain unknown. PTSD involves a complex network of highly interconnected brain regions, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). The precise circumstances that engage the BNST and the neural mechanisms that mediate its involvement in PTSD are not fully known. Serotonin (5-HT) release into the BNST yields increased expression of both fear and anxiety, specifically through 5-HT2C receptor signaling. Methods: Here, we investigated whether BNST 5-HT2C receptor signaling is necessary for the stress-enhancement of adult contextual fear learning that is observed in animals previously exposed to acute early life stress. Rats received 0 or 15 footshocks on postnatal day 17, an established model of stress-enhanced fear learning (i.e., SEFL). In adulthood, rats received bilateral infusions of vehicle, a 5-HT2C receptor antagonist (RS-102221), or a 5-HT2C receptor agonist (MK-212) into the BNST 15 minutes prior to 1-footshock contextual fear conditioning in a novel context. The next day, rats were returned to the fear conditioning context to assess their fear memory (freezing). Results: BNST infusions of RS-102221 reduced contextual fear conditioning, independent of aELS condition and sex. Infusions of MK-212 had no effect. Conclusions: Taken together, these data suggest that serotonergic signaling through 5-HT2C receptors in the BNST contribute to contextual fear conditioning, but not SEFL.Item Acute early life stress alters threat processing in adult rats
Minshall, Brianna L.; Peguero, Allison Z.; Scheive, Katelyn M.; Wasylyshyn, Catherine F.; Claflin, Dragana I.; Quinn, Jennifer J.Individuals diagnosed with stress-related psychiatric disorders in adulthood are likely to have experienced early life stress, suggesting that early adversity is an important vulnerability factor in subsequent development of trauma- and anxiety-related psychiatric illness. It is important to develop animal models of psychiatric dysfunction to determine evident vulnerability considerations, potential biomarkers, and novel treatment avenues to improve the human condition. In our model of acute early life stress (aELS), 15 footshocks are delivered in a single session on postnatal day (PND) 17. The following experiments investigated the persistent impacts of our aELS procedure on stress-enhanced fear learning, anxiety-related behaviors, maintenance of fear, and resistance to extinction in adult male and female rats. The findings from these experiments demonstrate that our aELS procedure yields enhanced fear learning and increased anxiety. This enhanced fear is maintained over time, yet it extinguishes normally. Taken together, these results demonstrate that exposure to 15-footshocks during a single session early in life (PND 17) recapitulates a number of important features of trauma- and anxiety-related disorder symptomatology, but not others. Future studies are needed to determine the persistent physiological phenotypes resulting from aELS, and the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate these long-term changes.Item Sex differences in acute early life stress-enhanced fear learning in adult rats
Minshall, Brianna; Skipper, Rachel; Riddle, Collin; Wasylyshyn, Catherine; Claflin, Dragana; Quinn, JenniferPatients diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) present with a spectrum of debilitating anxiety symptoms resulting from exposure to trauma. Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and PTSD compared to men; however, the reason for this vulnerability remains unknown. We conducted four experiments where we first demonstrated a female vulnerability to stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) with a moderate, acute early life stress (aELS) exposure (4 footshocks in a single session), compared to a more intense aELS exposure (15 footshocks in a single session) where males and females demonstrated comparable SEFL. Next, we demonstrated that this female vulnerability does not result from differences in footshock reactivity or contextual fear conditioning during the aELS exposure. Finally, using gonadectomy or sham surgeries in adult male and female rats, we showed that circulating levels of gonadal steroid hormones at the time of adult fear conditioning do not explain the female vulnerability to SEFL. Additional research is needed to determine whether this vulnerability can be explained by organizational effects of gonadal steroid hormones or differences in sex chromosome gene expression. Doing so is critical for a better understanding of increased female vulnerability to certain psychiatric diseases.Item Differential Effects of Lateral and Medial Entorhinal Cortex Lesions on Trace, Delay and Contextual Fear Memories
East, Brett S. Jr; Brady, Laura R.; Quinn, Jennifer J.Data set onlyItem Validation and Deployment of a Direct Saliva Real-Time RT-PCR Test on Pooled Samples for COVID-19 Surveillance Testing
Wilson, TimothyMinimal Data Set with anonymized indicators used for validation and analysis of saliva PCR test results, Ct values, diagnostic confirmations, and summary statistics.Item Using Extinction-Renewal to Circumvent the Memory Strength Boundary Condition in Fear Memory Reconsolidation
Campbell, Tiffany L; Kochli, Daniel E.; McDaniel, Mitch A.; Myers, Mallory K.; Dunn, Mallory E.; Diana, Victoria A.; Quinn, Jennifer J.Reconsolidation is a process by which memories are destabilized, updated, and then restabilized. Strong memories are resistant to undergoing reconsolidation. Here, we addressed whether an overtrained fear memory could be made susceptible to reconsolidation by first extinguishing, and then renewing, the memory. Rats were trained with ten tone-footshock pairings, followed by eight days of tone extinction in the training context. The next day, rats were placed into a second con-text and memory for the tone was renewed/reactivated with a single tone presentation. Immedi-ately following reactivation, rats received an injection of midazolam or vehicle. Rats were then tested for freezing to the tone in a third context. Midazolam had no effect in rats that did not un-dergo tone extinction, but significantly attenuated freezing to the tone in extinguished rats. Thus, rats that received tone extinction underwent tone memory reconsolidation following its renewal. In a second experiment, we administered the reactivation session and midazolam injections prior to extinction. Midazolam had no effect and rats extinguished at a rate similar to controls. These data suggest that strong emotional memories are capable of updating following weakening of memory expression through extinction.Item Nitric Oxide Metabolites in Hypoxia Freezing and Hibernation in wood frogs
Williams, BethanyNitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous free radical that in diverse organisms performs many signaling and protective functions, such as vasoregulation, inhibition of apoptosis, antioxidation, and metabolic suppression. Increased availability of NO may be especially important during life history periods when organisms must contend with multiple stresses. We investigated dynamics of the NO metabolites, nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-), in the blood plasma, heart, liver, and skeletal muscle of the wood frog (Rana sylvatica), an amphibian that endures chronic cold, freezing, hypoxia, dehydration, and extended aphagia during hibernation. We found elevated concentrations of NO2- and/or NO3- in the plasma (up to 4.1-fold), heart (3.1-fold), and liver (up to 4.1-fold) of frogs subjected to experimental hypoxia (24 h, 4°C), and in the liver (up to 3.8-fold) of frogs exposed to freezing (48 h, -2.5 °C), suggesting that increased NO availability aids in survival of these stresses. During a 38-week period of simulated hibernation, NO2- and/or NO3- increased in the plasma (up to 10.4-fold), heart (up to 3.3-fold), and liver (5.0-fold) during an initial 5-week winter-conditioning regimen and generally remained elevated thereafter. In hibernation, plasma NO2- was higher in frogs indigenous to Interior Alaska than in conspecifics from a more temperate locale (southern Ohio), suggesting that NO availability is matched to the severity of environmental conditions prevailing in winter. Our results, together with published values for other species, suggest that the NO protection system is of general importance in the stress adaptation of vertebrates.Item Preliminary Arthropod Survey: Rosenthal Islands
Gantz, Josiah David; Lee, Richard; BiologyThe Rosenthal Islands lie along the western edge the Antarctic Peninsula. They are largely inaccessible and the few research projects in the area have focused on the penguin colonies on the islands, thus, nothing is known about the arthropod fauna on the islands. Here, we conducted a preliminary survey of the arthropods on the islands with large penguin colonies. We identified two species of collembolans, four species of mites, and one insect. The mites and collembolans were common in large aggregations among our collecting sites and were occasionally observed on the surface of penguin guano without any vegetative cover. The insect, a Chironomid midge, was only found in vegetated areas and was less common in general.Item Micro-CT and SEM images of 3D scaffolds
Yousefi, AmyThese files contain Microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images generated at the University of Cincinnati and Miami University. These are unpublished results and will be included in journal manuscripts in 2017 and 2018. Research reported in these images was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1R15AR066269-01A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.