Exercising Depression

Exercise tends to lift depression, and researchers at Yale University think they have now learned how. Ronald S. Duman and colleagues used a microarray to identify genes that are regulated by exercise. They found that exercise upregulates a gene in a biochemical pathway that is also thought to be affected by antidepressants. The gene codes for the nerve growth factor VGF. The researchers showed that administering a synthetic form of VGF produces a robust antidepressant effect in mice and that mutation of VGF in mice produces the opposite effect (Nat. Med., DOI: 10.1038/nm1669). Last month, Janet Alder at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey and coworkers also reported that VGF has antidepressant effects in mice (J. Neurosci. 2007, 27, 12156). Duman notes that VGF is "a completely different factor" from endorphins, the body's natural painkillers that are associated with the exercise-induced, mood-elevating effect known as "runner's high."