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Article History

Received: 24 November 2025

Accepted: 30 January 2026

First Online: 20 February 2026

Declarations

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: The animal studies were conducted in strict accordance with internationally recognized guidelines for the use of laboratory animals in biomedical research and were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the I.M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences (protocol No. 12 − 2/2023). For detailed information on relevant ethical standards and criteria, please refer to the sections on “2.1 | Animals”.

: Although numerous studies have highlighted the significance of verifying the robustness of reference genes based on experimental conditions to avoid erroneous outcomes, a review of PubMed literature has not identified any study that has examined the stability of reference genes in the brains of animals in DLB, nor in postmortem samples from patients with depression. Furthermore, our study emphasizes the significance of considering age-related factors when selecting optimal reference genes, that has not been previously widely discussed. Therefore, our findings are crucial for investigations into gene expression patterns in rat brain in DLB, and when working under others experimental conditions.

: The paper has not been published previously or accepted for publication, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, either in whole or in part. All authors have read the manuscript and agreed to submit it in current form for evaluation for the journal.

: The authors declare no competing interests.