Alleviative effects of foraging exercise on depressive-like behaviors in chronic mild stress-induced ischemic rat model
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Published on: January 7, 2019
Xi Tao1, Siyuan Wu1, Wenjing Tang1
1Department of Neurological Rehabilitation, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
Background:
Poststroke depression (PSD) is a common complication that seriously affects the functional recovery and prognosis of an individual. As some patients with PSD fail to respond to drug therapy, it is urgent to find a viable alternative treatment.
Methods:
An active exercise program known as foraging exercise (FE), using food as bait, was designed. First, focal ischemia and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) were used to establish a PSD model in rats. FE was then performed for 4 weeks. Body weight and behavioral assessments were conducted at the end of the 4th and 8th weeks.
Results:
After 8 weeks, the results revealed that, compared with the PSD group, the behavioral scores of the rats in the PSD/FE group were significantly improved, the expression of Iba-1 in the affected frontal lobe and striatum was decreased, and serum levels of IL-6 and the IL-6/IL-10 ratio were downregulated. However, the ratio of residual brain volume in rats that had experienced CUMS was significantly less than that in the stroke group.
Conclusion:
FE can alleviate the behavioral scores of PSD rats, and its mechanism may be related to a modulation of the immune-inflammation response of microglia. Furthermore, chronic, persistent stress may increase the volume of cerebral infarction after stroke.
