Metabolic and Inflammatory Stimuli Impact Vascular Circulation and Cell Proliferation Processes in the Amygdala

The amygdala participates in the processing of stimulus signals from stimuli and the coordination of the physiological and behavioral responses. The sexually dimorphic structure of the amygdala also contributes to sex-specific molecular and functional profiles. The present study compares the response of the amygdala molecular mechanisms to different environmental stimuli between sexes. The amygdala of female and male pigs was profiled under control, immunostimulation, and the metabolic stimulus of fasting using RNA-sequencing. Differential expression analysis (False Discovery Rate -adjusted p value < 0.05) identified 958 genes affected by stimulus and 504 genes affected by sex within treatments. The functional categories presenting a predominance of differentially expressed genes included the synaptic vesicle cycle pathway, vascular smooth muscle contraction pathway, epithelial cell proliferation process, chemokine signaling, and apoptosis. Network analysis revealed hub genes, including Stx1a, Cplx1, Clam3, and Myh11, among the gene modules susceptible to stimuli. The regulatory element SUZ12 was associated with differential gene expression between stimuli in both sexes, whereas RELA and IRF1 were uniquely detected in males and females, respectively. The findings from the multifaceted approach provide genomic leads to investigating interventions that can mitigate the effects of stimuli on the amygdala function.