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. 2022 Jan-Dec:37:15333175221082743.
doi: 10.1177/15333175221082743.

Different Exercise Time on 5-HT and Anxiety-like Behavior in the Rat With Vascular Dementia

Yongzhao Fan  1 , Linlin Zhang  2 , Xiaoyang Kong  1 , Kun Liu  1   3   4 , Hao Wu  1
Affiliations

Different Exercise Time on 5-HT and Anxiety-like Behavior in the Rat With Vascular Dementia

Yongzhao Fan et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2022 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that pre-exercise suppresses anxiety-like behavior, but the effects of different exercise times on vascular dementia induced anxiety-like behavior have not been well investigated.

Objective: The present study aims to investigate the underlying neurochemical mechanism of different pre-vascular-dementia exercise times on 5-HT and anxiety-like behavior in rats with vascular dementia.

Methods: 32 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: sham group (S group, n = 8), vascular dementia group (VD group, n = 8), 1-week physical exercise and vascular dementia group (1WVD group, n = 8), and 4 weeks physical exercise and vascular dementia group (4WVD group, n = 8). 1 week and 4 weeks of voluntary wheel running were used as pre-exercise training. The vascular dementia model was established by bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion (BCCAo) for 1 week. But bilateral common carotid arteries were not ligated in the sham group. The level of hippocampal 5-HT was detected with in vivo microdialysis coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (MD-HPLC). Elevated plus maze (EPM), open field (OF), and light/dark box test were used to test anxiety-like behavior.

Results: Compared with the C group, the hippocampal 5-HT was significantly decreased in the VD group after 1 week of ligated operation. The hippocampal 5-HT levels in 1WVD and 4WVD groups were substantially higher than the level in the VD group. The hippocampal 5-HT level has no significant difference among C, 1WVD, and 4WVD. Behavioral data suggested that the rats in the VD group developed obvious anxiety-like behavior after 1 week of ligation surgery. Still, the rats in 1WVD and 4WVD groups did not show significant anxiety-like behavior.

Conclusion: Both 1 week and 4 weeks of voluntary running wheel exercise can inhibit the anxiety-like behavior in rats with vascular dementia by upregulating 5-HT levels in the hippocampus in the VD model.

Keywords: 5-HT; anxiety-like behavior; exercise; hippocampal; vascular dementia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A timeline in each group. “+" represents rats who received exercise intervention or/and VD operation and subsequent test; "-" represents no.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The neurological defect score in each group. ** P < .01 vs C group.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Average distance in WVD and 4WVD groups.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
(A) The entries into open arms in each group after VD. ** P < .05 compared with C group, ** P < .01 compared with VD group. (B): The percent time of open arms in each group after VD. ** P < .001 compared with C, 1WVD, and 4WVD groups.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
(A): The entries into the center area of 4 groups in the open field test. ** P < .01 compared with C, 1WVD, and 1WVD groups. (B): The time in the center area in the open field test. ** P < .05 compared with the VD group.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
(A): The percent of time in a lightbox in each group after VD. * P < .05 compared with VD group, ** P < .01 compared with VD group. (B): The number of passages in each group. ** P < .01 compared with the VD group. ** P < .01 compared with the 4WVD group.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
The hippocampal 5-HT level in each group. ** P < .01, * P < .05 compared with VD group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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