PMID- 30423358 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20190401 LR - 20200930 IS - 1873-7544 (Electronic) IS - 0306-4522 (Linking) VI - 396 DP - 2019 Jan 1 TI - c-Fos, DeltaFosB, BDNF, trkB and Arc Expression in the Limbic System of Male Roman High- and Low-Avoidance Rats that Show Differences in Sexual Behavior: Effect of Sexual Activity. PG - 1-23 LID - S0306-4522(18)30726-7 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.11.002 [doi] AB - Male Roman High- (RHA) and Low-Avoidance (RLA) rats display significant differences in sexual behavior (RHA rats exhibit higher sexual motivation and better copulatory performance than RLA rats). These differences are very evident in sexually naive rats (which copulate with a receptive female rat for the first time), and are still present, although reduced, after five copulatory tests, when sexual experience has been acquired. Since sexual activity is a natural reward that induces neural activation and synaptic plastic changes in limbic brain areas, we studied whether the differences in sexual activity between these rat lines are accompanied by changes in the expression of markers of neural activation and plasticity, i.e., c-Fos, DeltaFosB (a truncated form of FosB), Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and its tyrosine kinase receptor B (trkB) and Activity regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) protein in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (Acb) (core and shell) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of sexually naive and experienced RHA and RLA rats by Western Blot and/or immunohistochemistry. This study shows that these markers changed differentially in the VTA, Acb and mPFC of RHA and RLA rats, after sexual activity. In both rat lines, the changes were very evident in naive rats, tended to disappear in experienced rats and were higher in RHA than RLA rats. These findings confirm that sexual activity induces neural activation in limbic brain areas involved in motivation and reward, leading to changes in synaptic plasticity with sexual experience acquisition, and show that these depend on the animals' genotypic/phenotypic characteristics. CI - Copyright (c) 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Sanna, Fabrizio AU - Sanna F AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. Electronic address: fabrizio.sanna@unica.it. FAU - Poddighe, Laura AU - Poddighe L AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Cytomorphology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Serra, Maria Pina AU - Serra MP AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Cytomorphology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Boi, Marianna AU - Boi M AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Cytomorphology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Bratzu, Jessica AU - Bratzu J AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Sanna, Francesco AU - Sanna F AD - Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Section of Pharmaceutical, Pharmacological and Nutraceutical Sciences, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4, 500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Corda, Maria Giuseppa AU - Corda MG AD - Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Section of Pharmaceutical, Pharmacological and Nutraceutical Sciences, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4, 500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Giorgi, Osvaldo AU - Giorgi O AD - Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Section of Pharmaceutical, Pharmacological and Nutraceutical Sciences, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4, 500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Melis, Maria Rosaria AU - Melis MR AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Argiolas, Antonio AU - Argiolas A AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy; Neuroscience Institute, National Research Council of Italy, Section of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. FAU - Quartu, Marina AU - Quartu M AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Cytomorphology, University of Cagliari, SS 554, km 4,500, 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. Electronic address: quartu@unica.it. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20181110 PL - United States TA - Neuroscience JT - Neuroscience JID - 7605074 RN - 0 (Bdnf protein, rat) RN - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) RN - 0 (Cytoskeletal Proteins) RN - 0 (Fosb protein, rat) RN - 0 (Nerve Tissue Proteins) RN - 0 (Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos) RN - 0 (activity regulated cytoskeletal-associated protein) RN - EC 2.7.10.1 (Ntrk2 protein, rat) RN - EC 2.7.10.1 (Receptor, trkB) SB - IM MH - Animals MH - Avoidance Learning/*physiology MH - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*metabolism MH - Cytoskeletal Proteins/*metabolism MH - Female MH - Male MH - Nerve Tissue Proteins/*metabolism MH - Nucleus Accumbens/metabolism MH - Prefrontal Cortex/metabolism MH - Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/*metabolism MH - Rats MH - Rats, Inbred Strains MH - Receptor, trkB/*metabolism MH - Sexual Behavior, Animal/*physiology MH - Ventral Tegmental Area/metabolism OTO - NOTNLM OT - BDNF/trkB OT - Immediate early genes OT - Immunochemistry OT - male RHA and RLA rats OT - sexual behavior OT - sexual experience EDAT- 2018/11/14 06:00 MHDA- 2019/04/02 06:00 CRDT- 2018/11/14 06:00 PHST- 2018/08/03 00:00 [received] PHST- 2018/10/31 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2018/11/01 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2018/11/14 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2019/04/02 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2018/11/14 06:00 [entrez] AID - S0306-4522(18)30726-7 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.11.002 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Neuroscience. 2019 Jan 1;396:1-23. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.11.002. Epub 2018 Nov 10.