Medial and dorsal lateral septum involving social disruption stress-primed escalation in acid-induced writhes

Yi-Han Liao; Li-Han Sun; Yi-Chi Su; Wei-Jen Yao; Lung Yu

doi:10.3389/fnmol.2023.1158525

Medial and dorsal lateral septum involving social disruption stress-primed escalation in acid-induced writhes

Front Mol Neurosci. 2023 Apr 20:16:1158525. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1158525. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yi-Han Liao^{1

2}, Li-Han Sun³, Yi-Chi Su¹, Wei-Jen Yao⁴, Lung Yu^{1

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
² Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
³ Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁴ Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
⁵ Institute of Behavioral Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.

Abstract

Introduction: Stress may cause prospective escalations in abdominal pain magnitude and accumbal TRPV1 expression, while central neural circuits mediating these stress effects remain unclear.

Methods: Using retrograde tracing methods, we first demonstrated the existence of a medial septal-dorsal lateral septal -accumbal circuit very likely involving social disruption stress-primed escalations in acid-induced writhes and accumbal TRPV1 level. An intersectional viral strategy and virus-carrying hM3Dq and hM4Di DREADDs were, then, employed to selectively modulate GABAergic and cholinergic neuronal activity in medial and dorsal lateral septum.

Results: Exciting medial septal GABAergic neuron was found to prevent social disruption stress-primed escalations in acid-induced writhes and accumbal TRPV1 and PKCε expressions. Likewise, inactivating dorsal lateral septal cholinergic neurons was also effective in abolishing these stress-primed escalations. Inactivating GABAergic neuron in non-stressed animals' medial septum was found to reproduce the stress-primed effects in causing heightened acid-induced writhes and accumbal TRPV1 and PKCε levels.

Discussion: These results, taken together, prompt us to conclude that social disruption stress may produce plastic changes in a newly-identified medial septal-dorsal lateral septal-accumbal circuit. Moreover, medial septal GABAergic hypoactivity and dorsal lateral septal cholinergic hyperactivity are, at least, two likely causes reflecting such stress-produced escalations in abdominal pain magnitude and pain transduction-related protein over-expression in nucleus accumbens.

Keywords: TRPV1 receptor; abdominal pain; medial and dorsal lateral septum; nucleus accumbens; protein kinase C; stress.