Tactile Stimulation on Adulthood Modifies the HPA Axis, Neurotrophic Factors, and GFAP Signaling Reverting Depression-Like Behavior in Female Rats

AbstractDepression is a common psychiatric disease which pharmacological treatment relieves symptoms, but still far from ideal. Tactile stimulation (TS) has shown beneficial influences in neuropsychiatric disorders, but the mechanism of action is not clear. Here, we evaluated the TS influence when applied on adult female rats previously exposed to a reserpine-induced depression-like animal model. Immediately after reserpine model (1  mg/kg/mL, 1×/day, for 3 days), femaleWistar rats were submitted to TS (15  min, 3×/day, for 8 days) or not (unhandled). Imipramine (10 mg/kg/mL) was used as positive control. After behavioral assessments, animals were euthanized to collect plasma and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Behavioral observations in the forced swimming test, splash test, and sucrose preference confi rmed the reserpine-induced depression-like behavior, which was reversed by TS. Our findings showed that reserpine increased plasma levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone, decreased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tropomyosin receptor kinase B, and increased proBDNF imm unoreactivity in the PFC, which were also reversed by TS. Moreover, TS reestablished glial fibrillary acidic protein and glucocorticoid receptor levels, decreased by reserpine in PFC, while glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor was increased by TS per se. Our outcomes are showing that TS app lied in adulthood exerts a beneficial influence in depression-like behaviors, modu...
Source: Molecular Neurobiology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research