Fig. 4. Effect of treadmill exercise on hippocampal neuron in stress model. (A) Representative photomicrograph of NeuN immunostaining showing neuron cells in each group. (B) NeuN cells were counted in the hippocampal brain sections. ##p<0.01 vs. control; *p<0.05 vs. stress.
Treadmill exercise prevented stress-induced the decrease of spine density
Dendritic spines are small, thin, hair-like protrusions located on the neurons. Previous studies have shown that the dynamics of dendritic spine’s morphology and structure is associated with learning and memory[24]. We further analyzed the dendritic spine numbers of the secondary dendrites in the hippocampus by Golgi staining (Fig. 5A). Our results demonstrated that hippocampal spine density significantly decreased in stress group when compared with C group, (Fig. 5B, p<0.05), but the neuron from Exe-Stress group rat exhibited a more density than those from VD rat (Fig. 5B, p<0.05). Thus, we concluded that stress-induced the decrease of hippocampal spine density can be rescued by treadmill exercise.