Medical Research & Surgery Services, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
Mol Psychiatry. 2011 Feb;16(2):171-83. doi: 10.1038/mp.2009.130. Epub 2009 Dec 15.
Maintenance of neurogenesis in adult hippocampus is important for functions such as mood and memory. As exposure to unpredictable chronic stress (UCS) results in decreased hippocampal neurogenesis, enhanced depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors, and memory dysfunction, it is believed that declined hippocampal neurogenesis mainly underlies the behavioral and cognitive abnormalities after UCS. However, the effects of predictable chronic mild stress (PCMS) such as the routine stress experienced in day-to-day life on functions such as mood, memory and hippocampal neurogenesis are unknown. Using FST and EPM tests on a prototype of adult rats, we demonstrate that PCMS (comprising 5 min of daily restraint stress for 28 days) decreases depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors for prolonged periods. Moreover, we illustrate that decreased depression and anxiety scores after PCMS are associated with ~1.8-fold increase in the production and growth of new neurons in the hippocampus. Additionally, we found that PCMS leads to enhanced memory function in WMT as well as NORT. Collectively, these findings reveal that PCMS is beneficial to adult brain function, which is exemplified by increased hippocampal neurogenesis and improved mood and cognitive function.
成年海马体中的神经发生维持对于情绪和记忆等功能很重要。由于不可预测的慢性应激（UCS）会导致海马体神经发生减少、抑郁和焦虑样行为增强以及记忆功能障碍，因此人们认为 UCS 后行为和认知异常主要是由于海马体神经发生下降引起的。然而，日常经历的可预测的慢性轻度应激（PCMS）对情绪、记忆和海马体神经发生等功能的影响尚不清楚。我们使用成年大鼠的 FST 和 EPM 测试模型，证明了 PCMS（包括 28 天每天 5 分钟的束缚应激）会导致抑郁和焦虑样行为长时间持续减少。此外，我们表明，PCMS 后抑郁和焦虑评分的降低与海马体中新神经元的产生和生长增加约 1.8 倍有关。此外，我们发现 PCMS 导致 WMT 和 NORT 中的记忆功能增强。总的来说，这些发现表明 PCMS 有益于成年大脑功能，这表现为海马体神经发生增加以及情绪和认知功能改善。
