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Effect of early life stress on pancreatic isolated islets’ insulin secretion in young adult male rats subjected to chronic stress

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Abstract

Early stressful experiences may predispose organisms to certain disorders, including those of metabolic defects. This study aimed to explore the effects of early life stress on pancreatic insulin secretion and glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) protein levels in stressed young adult male rats. Foot shock stress was induced in early life (at 2 weeks of age) and/or in young adulthood (at 8–10 weeks of age) for five consecutive days. Blood samples were taken before and after stress exposure in young adult rats. At the end of the experiment, glucose tolerance, isolated islets’ insulin secretion, and pancreatic amounts of GLUT2 protein were measured. Our results show that early life stress has no effect on basal plasma corticosterone levels and adrenal weight, either alone or combined with young adulthood stress, but that early life + young adulthood stress could prevent weight gain, and cause an increase in basal plasma glucose and insulin. The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index did not increase, when the rats were subjected to early life stress alone, but increased when combined with young adulthood stress. Moreover, glucose tolerance was impaired by the combination of early life + young adult stress. There was a decrease in islet’s insulin secretion in rats subjected to early life stress in response to 5.6 mM glucose concentration, but an increase with a concentration of 16.7 mM glucose. However, in rats subjected to early life + young adulthood stress, islet’s insulin secretion increased in response to both the levels of glucose concentrations. GLUT2 protein levels decreased in response to early life stress and early life + young adulthood stress, but there was a greater decrease in the early life stress group. In conclusion, perhaps early life stress sensitizes the body to stressors later in life, making it more susceptible to metabolic syndrome only when the two are in combination.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant from Research Deputy of Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Ethical standards

All procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Neurophysiology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Forouzan Sadeghimahalli

  2. Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Roxana Karbaschi

  3. Neurophysiology Research Center and Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, PO Box 19615-1178, Tehran, Iran

    Homeira Zardooz

  4. NeuroBiology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fariba Khodagholi

  5. Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fariba Khodagholi

  6. Department of Biology, College of Basic Sciences, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini (RAH) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Fatemeh Rostamkhani

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  1. Forouzan Sadeghimahalli
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  2. Roxana Karbaschi
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  3. Homeira Zardooz
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  5. Fatemeh Rostamkhani
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Correspondence to Homeira Zardooz.

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This paper is part of a PhD thesis by Forouzan Sadeghimahalli.

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Sadeghimahalli, F., Karbaschi, R., Zardooz, H. et al. Effect of early life stress on pancreatic isolated islets’ insulin secretion in young adult male rats subjected to chronic stress. Endocrine 48, 493–503 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0337-4

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