Effect of chronic unpredictable stress on behavioral analysis and cognitive functions in association with hippocampus glial cells

Abstract

Exposure to different types of stress is one of the significant risk factors in the emergence of clinically diagnosable depression. Studies are considerably less correlating the effect of stress on glial cell astrocytes, cognitive functions and behavioral analysis. The present study was aimed to. correlate the effect of chronic unpredictable stress on astrocytes in the hippocampus, cognitive functions and behavioral analysis. Adult Wistar albino rats were divided into Control group and stressed group (n=6 in each group). The rat were exposed to chronic unpredictable stressors for 15 consecutive days. On 15th day, the cognitive functions and the behavioral analysis was done. The animals were anesthetized and hippocampus was dissected and the astrocyte count was done using immunostaining method. The astrocyte count significantly (p<0.0001) decreased in the hippocampal tissue in the stressed group of rats. Moreover the decrease in the astrocytes was well associated with the significant decrease in the cognitive functions (p<0.0001) and behavioral analysis(p<0.0001). The current study focuses attention towards the strategies mitigating stress-induced cognitive dysfunction and altered behavioral responses associating astrocyte count targeting hippocampus. Reconsolidating pre-stress glial structure might prove therapeutically effective.