Sexually Dimorphic Serotonergic Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease and Depression

Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in Huntington's disease (HD) patients. In the general population, women are more prone to develop depression and such susceptibility might be related to serotonergic dysregulation. There is yet to be a study of sexual dimorphism in the development and presentation of depression in HD patients. We investigated whether 8-week-old male and female R6/1 transgenic HD mice display depressive-like endophenotypes associated with serotonergic impairments. We also studied the behavioral effects of acute treatment with sertraline. We found that only female HD mice exhibited a decreased preference for saccharin as well as impaired emotionality-related behaviors when assessed on the novelty-suppressed feeding test (NSFT) and the forced-swimming test (FST). The exaggerated immobility time displayed by female HD in the FST was reduced by acute administration of sertraline. We also report an increased response to the 5-HT1A receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT in inducing hypothermia and a decreased 5-HT2A receptor function in HD animals. While tissue levels of serotonin were reduced in both male and female HD mice, we found that serotonin concentration and hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) mRNA levels were higher in the hippocampus of males compared to female animals. Finally, the antidepressant-like effects of sertraline in the FST were blunted in male HD animals. This study reveals sex-specific depressive-related behaviors during an early stage of HD prior to any cognitive and motor deficits. Our data suggest a crucial role for disrupted serotonin signaling in mediating the sexually dimorphic depression-like phenotype in HD mice

Superhard oxidation-resistant Ti1-xAlxBy thin films grown by hybrid HiPIMS/DCMS co-sputtering diboride targets without external substrate heating

Ti1-xAlxBy films (0.40 ≤ x ≤ 0.76, and 1.81 ≤ y ≤ 2.03) combining good mechanical properties and high-temperature oxidation resistance are demonstrated. Layers are grown using a hybrid high-power impulse and dc magnetron co-sputtering employing two target configurations (AlB2-HiPIMS/TiB2-DCMS and TiB2-HiPIMS/AlB2-DCMS) and no external substrate heating. Near-stoichiometric B content are achieved by co-sputtering two diboride targets. Time-resolved ion mass spectrometry analyses reveal that the ionization of the DCMS flux (Al) is much higher during TiB2-HiPIMS/AlB2-DCMS. The effect is caused by the difference in the first ionization potentials and the ionization probabilities of sputtered metals and results in lower B/metal ratios in films grown in this configuration. The B/metal ratio in the single-phase Ti1-xAlxBy decreases with increasing Al content, which is explained by the change between angular distribution of Ti and Al atoms. Alloying with Al improves the high-temperature oxidation resistance: the thickness of the oxide-scale forming after 1 h anneal at 800 °C decreases more than 15 times upon increasing x from 0.36 to 0.74. Ti1-xAlxBy films with 0.58 ≤ x ≤ 0.67 offer the best compromise between high-temperature oxidation resistance and mechanical properties with an average oxide scale thickness 90–180 nm and the hardness of 34–38 GPa