Olfactory bulbectomy

Olfactory bulbectomy is the ablation of the Olfactory bulb.

In animals
Olfactory bulbectomy has been used to study the development depression in animals: The olfactory bulbectomy in rodents results in a disruption of the limbic-hypothalamic axis with the consequence of behavioral, neurochemical, neuroendocrine and neuroimmune changes, of which many resemble changes seen in depressed patients. It is still not clear how bulbectomy in animals actually relates to depression in humans. It might simply result from a high intensity of chronic stressor caused by chronic sensory deprivation. This model shows high predictive validity as it mimics the slow onset of antidepressant action reported in clinical studies, responding chronic but not subchronic antidepressant treatment with no response to other drugs. It is worth mentioning that, unlike stress-related models, the rat in lesion model represents an agitated, hyposerotonergic depression-related phenotype, rather than a retarded depression.