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The effects of IL2Rgamma knockout on depression and contextual memory
Xiaojun Wu1, Abba J Kastin, Hung Hsuchou
1Blood-Brain Barrier Group, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA.
None:
Interleukin (IL)-2Rgamma shows robust upregulation in neuroinflammatory states associated with clinical depression. We tested the hypothesis that mice lacking IL2Rgamma would have decreased depressive-like behavior. Contrary to this expectation, these knockout mice showed increased immobility in both the Porsolt forced swimming and Nomura water wheel tests. By comparison, the auditory fear conditioning test showed increased retention of contextual freezing. Thus, intact IL2Rgamma combats depressive-like behavior.

