2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Early voluntary exercise prevents decrease in stress vulnerability induced by early life stress

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24700609
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Physical education
Research Institution	Yamaguchi University
Principal Investigator	ISHIKAWA Junko 山口大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (30570808)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	前頭前野 / 扁桃体 / ストレス / 運動
Research Abstract	Early social isolation increases the risk of developing neuropsychiatric disease due to stress. The present study investigated whether early weaning (EW) could cause decrease in stress vulnerability and dysfunction of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and basolateral nucleus of amygdale (BLA), and whether voluntary exercise during early postnatal period (EW+EX) could prevent changes induced by EW. Electric foot shock increased learned helplessness behavior of EW rats, but not EW+EX rats, as compared to normal weaned (NW) rats. The number of c-Fos positive cells after exposure to open field stress of EW rats was higher in the BLA and lower in the mPFC as compared to NW and EW+EX rats. Excitatory latencies of mPFC neurons to amygdalar stimulation of EW rats were significantly longer than NW rats. These data suggest that EW decreases stress vulnerability due to dysfunction of mPFC and BLA, and which are prevented by voluntary exercise during early postnatal period.

(4 results)