Over the past decade, FGF2 has been implicated in learning and memory, as well as in several neuropsychiatric disorders, including anxiety, stress, depression and drug addiction.
Early-life fibroblast growth factor 2, a treatment that reduces anxiety-like behavior throughout life, decreased CTGF expression in the adult dentate gyrus.
Hippocampal FGF2 correlates negatively with conditioned fear expression, and antidepressants, the first-line pharmacological treatment for anxiety, increase hippocampal FGF2.
To the extent that conditioned fear expression predicts anxiety and trauma disorder vulnerability, FGF2 may be a clinically useful biomarker in the prediction and eventual prevention of these disorders.