Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic psychological stress, and major depressive disorder have been found to be associated with a significant decrease in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity in the hippocampus of rodents.
These results suggest that specific astrocytic deficits in GFAP expression in corticolimbic circuits may be a general correlate of depressive-like behavior in animal models in addition to human major depression.
Astrocytic markers glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and connexin 43 (CX43) are known to have altered expression in brains of subjects with psychiatric disorders including autism and major depression.