Stress, depression and hippocampal apoptosis.

In this review, we summarize and discuss recent studies on structural plasticity changes, particularly apoptosis, in the mammalian hippocampus in relation to stress and depression. Apoptosis continues to occur, yet with very low numbers, in the adult hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) of various species. Stress and steroid exposure modulate the rate of apoptosis in the DG. Contrary to earlier studies, the impact of chronic stress on structural parameters of the hippocampus like cell number and volume, is rather modest, and requires prolonged and severe stress exposure before only small reductions (\