Advances in Gerontology · 2016
COMPARATIVE MORPHOFUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULT AND OLD RAT VENTRAL HIPPOCAMPUS TO COMBINED STRESS INFLUENCE
By Ekova MR, Smirnov AV, Schmidt MV et al.
Animals were subjected to seven days combined stress in a special chamber (6 isolated compartments of equal area) with removable multi-modal stressors (noise, vibration, pulsating bright light) every 5 minutes on the stochastic scheme with restraint and temperature rise in the chamber during 30-minute stressing time sessions. After exposure to combined stress in the ventral hippocampus of old rats (24 months) compared with adult animals (12 months) following changes were revealed: marked dystrophic changes and increased inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in pyramidal neurons of CA3 field, signs of impaired hemodynamic disorders in the microvasculature, perivascular edema, decreased endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression in microvascular endothelial cells, as well as decreased expression of serine racemase in the neuropil of the radial layer of CA1 field.