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.