Sunday, January 22, 2017

Week 1 - Santarelli and Bessa

I started with the Santarelli et al. paper which I thought provided a decent foundation of knowledge for the topic of hippocampal neurogenesis in relation to the behavioral effects of antidepressants. In terms of data - one of the first things I noticed was that the authors used the mean percentage of vehicle control latency (+/- SEM) as a measure in most of their graphs. While I appreciate that this measure is applied consistently throughout different experiments which helps in comparing the results; I almost felt at times that I would prefer the raw latency data, or even a combination of raw and percentage data.

I keep going back to review all the different experiments performed; from the BrDU analysis following the three treatment lengths to the x-irradiation and the 5HT-1A KO analyses. Though I understand that there is value in performing each individual experiment and that the consequential results may assist in further understanding any relation between neurogenesis and antidepressent effects; at the same time it sort of feels like some of the experiments should be included in separate papers rather than all together in one.  The author states in the introduction that the purpose of the paper is to try and determine whether increased neurogenesis is required for antidepressant action. The 5HT-1A experiments and result discussion feels more like an attempt to analyze the molecular actions and pathways of the different antidepressants used in the experiments, rather than focus on the influence the receptor may have on neurogenesis. 

Overall the Santarelli et al. paper did not win me over in their data or analysis of increased neurogenesis and antidepressant behavioral effects. Their paradigm and data had a stronger lean toward anxiety-related behaviors as opposed to depression. Depression and anxiety may be related and involve similar behaviors, but with a focus on antidepressants specifically, the way their experiments and paper were set-up it just didn't quite click for me.

After reading the Bessa et al. paper I felt even more strongly that the Santarelli et al. group could have been more in-depth and didn't fully address their purpose. I really enjoyed their expanded analysis that included multiple brain regions and the neuron morphology. Utilizing multiple  depression behavioral test gave me more confidence in their animal model of depression than the previous paper. I also enjoyed the organization of the paper -the brief and distinct analyses of the various studies helped me to separate the results into different categories and be able change perspectives and compare for potential correlations.


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