Many experiments suggest that BDNF is a key gene in depression, Notably, lower BDNF levels are found in the hippocampus and the PFC of subjects who committed suicide compared with non-suicide controls, whereas higher BDNF levels are observed in individuals treated with antidepressants compared with drug-free controls [48, 49]. Our results showed that mRNA and protein levels of BDNF were decreased in the mPFC but not in the hippocampus of CUS-treated postpartum mice, which indicates a brain-region specific function. Furthermore, Pearson’s test analysis showed that total Bdnf mRNA in the mPFC was significantly correlated to the depression-related behavior. These findings suggest that suppression of BDNF expression in the mPFC may be involved in the pathology of PPD, which is in accordance with the viewpoint that mPFC is one of the crucial regions for the pathology of depression. However, mPFC specific BDNF deletion can induce depression-related behaviors in postpartum only, but not in virgin female mice, which suggests the specific role of Bdnf in mPFC on PPD. A recent study showed that T cell death-associated gene 51 (TDAG51) knockout, microglia-specific autophagy-deficient
