Ketamine and olanzapine alter behaviour and prefrontal-cortex BDNF differentially in male and female rats
Scientific Reports August 23, 2025 Kalin Manooki, Mahdieh Gholami, Maryam Eslami et al. 3 citations
In rats, five days of ketamine injections induced schizophrenia-like behaviors—increased activity and climbing, reduced exploration, impaired object-recognition memory, and lowered BDNF in the prefrontal cortex. Females showed additional effects: lower pain threshold (hyperalgesia) and less immobility in the forced swim test (an antidepressant-like effect). A single dose of olanzapine after the last ketamine injection reversed most behavioral deficits in both sexes, including memory impairment, and normalized pain threshold and immobility in females. Olanzapine did not affect BDNF levels, suggesting its therapeutic actions in this model do not rely on BDNF upregulation in the prefrontal cortex.