Differential impact of chronic stress along the hippocampal dorsal–ventral axis

Stress impacts differently in distinct brain regions. However, so far few studies have focused on the differential responses triggered by stressful stimuli on the intrinsic functional heterogeneity of the hippocampal axis. In this study, we assessed the functional and structural alterations caused b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain Structure and Function 2015-03, Vol.220 (2), p.1205-1212
Main Authors: Pinto, V., Costa, J. C., Morgado, P., Mota, C., Miranda, A., Bravo, F. V., Oliveira, T. G., Cerqueira, J. J., Sousa, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Atrophy
Behavior, Animal
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain research
CA1 Region, Hippocampal - pathology
CA1 Region, Hippocampal - physiopathology
CA3 Region, Hippocampal - metabolism
CA3 Region, Hippocampal - physiopathology
Cell Biology
Chronic Disease
Cognition
Hippocampus - pathology
Hippocampus - physiopathology
Long-Term Potentiation
Male
Maze Learning
Memory
Morphology
Neurology
Neurosciences
Rats, Wistar
Short Communication
Stress
Stress, Psychological - pathology
Stress, Psychological - physiopathology
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Time Factors
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Summary:Stress impacts differently in distinct brain regions. However, so far few studies have focused on the differential responses triggered by stressful stimuli on the intrinsic functional heterogeneity of the hippocampal axis. In this study, we assessed the functional and structural alterations caused by exposure to a chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) paradigm on the dorsal–ventral axis of the hippocampus. The morphological analysis demonstrated that CUS had opposite outcomes in the structure of the dorsal (DH) and ventral hippocampus (VH): whereas in the DH, stress triggered a volumetric reduction as a result of atrophy of CA3 and CA1 apical dendrites, in the VH there was an increase in hippocampal volume concurrent with the increase of CA3 apical dendrites. In parallel, electrophysiological data revealed that stress led to a decrease in VH LTD. In summary, the present work showed that stress impacts differently on the structure and function of the DH and VH which contributes to better understand the overall spectrum of the central effects of stress.
ISSN:1863-2653
1863-2661
0340-2061
DOI:10.1007/s00429-014-0713-0