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Restraint stress-induced effects on learning, memory, cognition, and expression of transcripts in different brain regions of mice

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Abstract

Background

Stress is one of the prevalent factors influencing cognition. Several studies examined the effect of mild or chronic stress on cognition. However, most of these studies are limited to a few behavioral tests or the expression of selected RNA/proteins markers in a selected brain region.

Methods

This study examined the effect of restraint stress on learning, memory, cognition, and expression of transcripts in key learning centers. Male mice were divided into three groups (n = 6/group)—control group, stress group (adult stressed group; S), and F1 group (parental stressed group). Stress group mice were subjected to physical restraint stress for 2 h before light offset for 2 weeks. The F1 group comprised adult male mice born of stressed parents. All animals were subjected to different tests and were sacrificed at the end. Transcription levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (Bdnf), Tyrosine kinase (TrkB), Growth Associated Protein 43 (Gap-43), Neurogranin (Ng), cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein (Creb), Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (Gsk3β), Interleukine-1 (IL-1) and Tumour necrosis factor-α (Tnf-α) were studied.

Results

Results show that both adult and parental stress negatively affect learning, memory and cognition, as reflected by taking longer time to achieve the task or showing reduced exploratory behavior. Expression of Bdnf, TrkB, Gsk3β and Ng was downregulated, while IL-1 and Tnf-α were upregulated in the brain’s cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus region of stressed mice. These effects seem to be relatively less severe in the offspring of stressed parents.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that physical restraint stress can alter learning, memory, cognition, and expression of transcripts in key learning centers of brain.

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Data will be provided on request.

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Acknowledgements

This work utilized the facility created by funding from the Department of Science and Technology under the Cognitive Science and Research Initiative (DST/CSRI/2017/37(C). Funding from the Department of Science and Technology under the DST-FIST program to create infrastructure in the Department of Zoology, Mizoram University is greatly acknowledged. Experimental facility created under DBT BUILDER program is also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, 796004, India

    Tlau S. K. Lalrinawma, James T. Sangma, Zothanmawii Renthlei & Amit K. Trivedi

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  1. Tlau S. K. Lalrinawma
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  2. James T. Sangma
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  3. Zothanmawii Renthlei
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  4. Amit K. Trivedi
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Contributions

TSK and JTS executed the experiment. ZR performed qPCR analysis. AKT conceived the idea and provided resources. All authors contributed to drafting the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Amit K. Trivedi.

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The study has been approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of Mizoram University.

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Lalrinawma, T.S.K., Sangma, J.T., Renthlei, Z. et al. Restraint stress-induced effects on learning, memory, cognition, and expression of transcripts in different brain regions of mice. Mol Biol Rep 51, 278 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-024-09224-y

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