Fig. 4. Influence of CUS on female Sst^tdT interneuron transcript expression.

a Representative images of Sst^tdT interneurons in the infralimbic subregion of the medial PFC of female mice exposed to CUS or left undisturbed as controls. b Average number of Sst^tdT interneurons in each layer of prelimbic and infralimbic medial PFC are shown in bar graph. Bars represent the mean ± S.E.M. (n = 4–7/ group). Means that are significantly different from respective controls by ANOVA are noted by (*p < 0.05). c Volcano plots of differential gene expression between Sst^tdT interneurons of female control and CUS exposed. Red dots indicate upregulated transcripts and blue dots represent downregulated transcripts. There are 4642 DEGs (FDR < 0.05), n = 3–7 Sst^tdT males and females. d Top 5 significantly inhibited pathways in female Sst^tdT interneurons after CUS. The most inhibited (most downregulated genes) was the pancreatic adenocarcinoma signaling pathway comprised mostly of growth factors and growth factor signaling molecules. e Mean FPKMs of growth factor signaling transcripts decreased by CUS (FDR < 0.05) in the female CUS network; error bars indicate ± S.E.M. f Secondary confirmation of growth factor signaling transcripts in the Sst^tdT female CUS network by qPCR; error bars indicate ± S.E.M. of log corrected Ct values (n = 3, Mann–Whitney-U, p < 0.01). g Ingenuity pathway analysis generated a female CUS network centered on growth factors of the adenocarcinoma pathway. This network received a score of 17 and has 9 focus molecules with major hubs at Vegf and Rac1