Chronic traumatic stress impairs memory in mice: potential roles of acetylcholine, neuroinflammation and corticotropin releasing factor expression in the hippocampus.

Chronic traumatic stress impairs memory in mice: potential roles of acetylcholine, neuroinflammation and corticotropin releasing factor expression in the hippocampus. Behav Brain Res. 2017 Aug 07;: Authors: Bhakta A, Gavini K, Yang E, Lyman-Henley L, Parameshwaran K Abstract Chronic stress in humans can result in multiple adverse psychiatric and neurobiological outcomes, including memory deficits. These adverse outcomes can be more severe if each episode of stress is very traumatic. When compared to acute or short term stress relatively little is known about the effects of chronic traumatic stress on memory and molecular changes in hippocampus, a brain area involved in memory processing. Here we studied the effects of chronic traumatic stress in mice by exposing them to adult Long Evan rats for 28 consecutive days and subsequently analyzing behavioral outcomes and the changes in the hippocampus. Results show that stressed mice developed memory deficits when assayed with radial arm maze tasks. However, chronic traumatic stress did not induce anxiety, locomotor hyperactivity or anhedonia. In the hippocampus of stressed mice interleukin-1β protein expression was increased along with decreased corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) gene expression. Furthermore, there was a reduction in acetylcholine levels in the hippocampus of stressed mice. There were no changes in brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) or nerve growth factor (NGF) l...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research