Stress-Depression Link, 3

Researchers found that disrupting maternal care of mice produced changes in levels of hundreds of genes regulated by the transcription factor orthodenticle homeobox 2 (OTX2) in the VTA brain reward center. The good news was that although early stress could establish the groundwork for later depression, that priming could be undone by intervention at the right moment. Professor Eric J. Nestler, who led the mouse study, explained that this “mouse paradigm will be useful for understanding the molecular correlates of increased risk of depression resulting from early life stress and could pave the way to look for such sensitive windows in human studies. The ultimate translational goal of this research is to aid treatment discoveries relevant to individuals who experienced childhood stress and trauma.”

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6343/1185