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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

Biomarkers in an Animal Model for Revealing Neural, Hematologic, and Behavioral Correlates of PTSD
Published on: October 10, 2012
PET Mapping of Neurofunctional Changes in a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Model
Yunqi Zhu1, Ruili Du2, Yuankai Zhu1
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Second Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China Zhejiang University Medical PET Center, Hangzhou, China Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; and.
Unlabelled:
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that occurs after exposure to a traumatic event. This study aimed to investigate the neurobiologic changes before and after exposure-based therapy by PET in a rat model of PTSD.
Methods:
Serial (18)F-FDG PET imaging studies were performed under the control (tone presentation), fear-conditioning, and extinction retrieval phases. Neuroactivity marker c-Fos protein was used for immunostaining.
Results:
Increased glucose metabolism was observed in the bilateral amygdala after fear-conditioning (P < 0.001) and in the right posterior insular cortex under extinction retrieval (P < 0.001) compared with the control phase. Increased c-Fos expression in the posterior insular cortex under extinction retrieval was positively correlated to the glucose metabolism (P < 0.01).
Conclusion:
Our results indicated that the amygdala plays a key role in fear memory formation and, most importantly, the insular cortex is related to the retrieval of extinction memory. (18)F-FDG PET may provide a promising in vivo approach for evaluating exposure-based therapy of PTSD.
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