Does social rank influence AMPA receptor subunits in the medial prefrontal cortex of adult male and female rats?

Abstract

Social dominance hierarchies are ubiquitously observed in social species across the animal kingdom. Social interactions, including resource competition and conflict, shape dominance structures, where animals are ranked as dominant, or subordinate to one another. Previous work has implicated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) as a key brain region responsible for controlling social hierarchy through α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPA) function. The trafficking of AMPARs at the synapse plays a key role in synaptic plasticity, and is mediated by interactions between AMPARs and their associated auxiliary proteins. To date, no studies have explored the expression of AMPAR subunits and their auxiliary proteins in the context of a social hierarchy. As a result, the current study aimed to elucidate the effect that social rank might have on the most abundant AMPAR subunits, GluA1 and GluA2, along with their principal auxiliary proteins, GRIP1, PICK1, and stargazin, in both male and female rats.