Fig. 2.

Injection of exosomes from stressed mice induces symptoms of major depressive disorder, which is prevented by ex vivo neutralization or consumption of ceramide. A and B Exosomes were purified from the blood plasma of untreated or mice that were stressed for 7 days (donor mice). Exosomes were treated ex vivo with ceramide IgM antibodies clone S58-9 (anti-Cer), control immunoglobulin M (ctrl IgM), or recombinant ceramidase (CDase) or were left untreated (-), pelleted, resuspended in H/S, and injected intravenously (i.v.) into healthy wild-type mice. Controls were left completely untreated (-) or were injected with exosomes from untreated mice. Neurogenesis in the hippocampus A and behavioral changes B were determined 24 h later as readouts for MDD. Shown are the mean ± SD from each 6 animals analyzed per group. ***P < 0.001, ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test