Table 3.

Summary of sex-specific modification on BDNF expression.

Sex	Species	Stress Patterns	Stress Period	Phenotypes	BDNF Alterations	Reference
Male	Mouse	CORT treatment	6–9 weeks	Impaired memory	Bdnf heterozygous mice	[162,164]
		Mild stress	4–6 months	Depression-like		[165]
	Rat	MS and CORT treatment	P2-14 8–10 weeks	Impaired memory	Dorsal hippocampus Bdnf transcripts ↑ mBDNF ↓	[161]
		Restraint stress	Prenatal	Anxiety-like	Hippocampus proBDNF, mBDNF ↑	[166]
		Maternal deprivation	P9-10	-	Hypothalamus, Bdnf mRNA ↓	[78]
	Human	Preterm	Infants	Impaired cognition	BDNF Val66Met variant	[163]
Female	Mouse	MS	2–3 weeks	Depression-like	PFC, BDNF ↓	[158,167]
		CUS	3–6 months	Depression-like	Hippocampus, mPFC BDNF ↓	[160]
		Restraint stress	Prenatal	-	Hippocampus proBDNF ↑, mBDNF ↓	[168]
	Rat	Restraint stress	Prenatal	-	mPFC, BDNF ↓	[43]
		MS and CORT treatment	P 2-14 and 8–10 weeks	Depression-like	Ventral hippocampus BDNF ↓	[161]
		Maltreatment	P1-7	-	Amygdala, Bdnf ↓	[169]
	Vole	Paternal deprivation	P1-21	-	Dentate gyrus, BDNF ↓	[170]

Note: CORT, corticosterone; CUS, chronic unpredictable stress; MS, maternal separation; PFC, prefrontal cortex; mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex P, Postnatal day; -, not mentioned; ↑, the expression is elevated; ↓, the expression is decreased.