The effects of chronic electroconvulsive stimulation on the rodent hippocampal proteome

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective treatment available for severe depression. However, its mechanisms of action are not yet fully understood. To understand the protein expression changes induced in the hippocampus by this treatment, electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS), the animal model of ECT, was administered chronically (x 10 treatments) to rats. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and label free quantification was used to identify changes in the hippocampal proteome following ECS. Results: In total, 62 proteins were found to be significantly up- or down-regulated following ECS (Student’s t-test, p<0.05). These proteins were organised according to the gene ontology classifications “biological processes”, “molecular functions” and “cellular location”. Conclusions: Primarily cytoskeletal- and energy metabolism-related processes were identified by gene ontology analysis. Proteins with cytoskeletalrelated roles were of particular interest, including the astrocyte marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and microtubule associated proteins (MAPs). These results suggest that ECS administration primarily induces changes in structural and metabolism-associated proteins in the rat hippocampus.