'Zoning' the culprit is troubling and worrying

A substance called FGF2 that plays an important role in brain development may be an agent for some people to become anxious and depressed.

Photo: thenewwellness.com

FGF2 is a group of proteins that are important for bone and nervous system development. They also help restore nerve function after brain damage. Neuroscientists from the University of Michigan (USA) apply genetic technology to produce mice with lower FGF2 concentrations than normal mice. They find it very easy to fall into a state of anxiety and fear.

But when the team improved the living conditions of mice (like letting them discover new toys or live in larger cages), their levels of FGF2 increased and they became less anxious.

'The concentration of FGF2 increases immediately after the mice have access to new living conditions. That makes them behave like normal mice. When we inject FGF2 into those mice, they are also less anxious , 'said Javier Perez, team leader.

Previously Perez and colleagues studied people with severe depression before they died. Experts discovered genes that reduced FGF2 levels in the brain. Perez said that this chemical could foresee the risk of depression and anxiety in animals. However, the amount of FGF2 may increase if the surrounding environment has positive changes. It is possible that these changes protect nerve cells.

Although both normal mice and mice with the same anxiety disorder produced the same number of neurons, the ability of the cell to survive in the nervous brain was much lower. Improving living conditions or injecting FGF2 enhances cell survival.

"This discovery will pave the way for the study of non-pharmacological treatments for anxiety and depression," said Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza of the University of Bordeaux (France).