Acute stress reveals different impacts in male and female Zdhhc7-deficient mice

Abstract

Numerous processes of neuronal development and synaptic plasticity in the brain rely on the palmitoyl acyltransferase ZDHHC7, as it palmitoylates various synaptic and extrasynaptic proteins such as neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) or gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABAA) receptors. In addition, ZDHHC7 palmitoylates sex steroid hormone receptors and is, therefore, indirectly linked to mental disorders that often occur because of or in conjunction with stress. In this work, we investigated how ZDHHC7 affects stress responses in mice. For this purpose, genetically modified mice with a knockout of the Zdhhc7 gene (KO) and wild-type (WT) littermates of both sexes were exposed to acute stressors or ..