Chronic variable physical stress during the peripubertal-juvenile period causes differential depressive and anxiogenic effects in the novelty-seeking phenotype: functional implications for hippocampal and amygdalar brain-derived neurotrophic factor and th

▶Chronic stress exposed HRs showed social anxiety- and antidepressant-like behaviors. ▶Epigenetic activation of BDNF gene was increased in HRs exposed to chronic stress. ▶Chronic stress induced upregulation of BDNF mRNA in hippocampus and amygdala in HRs. ▶Chronic variable stress resulted in increased mossy fibre terminal field size in HRs.