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Depression is the most common form of mental disability in the world. Depressive episodes may be precipitated by severe acute stressful events or by mild chronic stressors. Studies on the mechanisms of depression require both appropriate experimental models (most of them based on the exposure of animals to chronic stressors), and appropriate tests for assessment of depressive states. In this study male Wistar rats were exposed to two different chronic stress paradigms: an eight-week chronic unpredictable mild stress or a two-week combined chronic stress. The behavioral effects of stress were evaluated using sucrose preference, forced swim and open field tests. After the exposure to chronic unpredictable mild stress, anhedonia was developed, activity in the open field increased, while no changes in the duration of passive floating could be detected. After chronic combined stress, anhedonia was also evident, whereas behavior in the open field and forced swim test did not change. The levels of corticosterone in the blood and brain structures involved in stress-response did not differ from control in both experiments. The absence of significant changes in corticosterone levels and passive floating may be indicative of the adaptation of animals to chronic stress. Anhedonia appears to be a more sensitive indicator of depressive-like behavioral effects of chronic stress as compared to behavior in the forced swim or open field tests.

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Hippocampus is believed to be selectively vulnerable to stress. We hypothesized that this phenomenon may be mediated by relatively high vulnerability to neuroinflammation related to impairments of local glucocorticoid metabolism and signaling. We have evaluated inflammatory responses induced by acute or chronic combined stress in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus as well as circulating and brain corticosterone (CS) levels as well as expression of corticosterone target genes. The hippocampus showed higher stress-induced expression of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β as compared to the cerebral cortex. A month after the termination of the chronic stress, IL-1β mRNA in the cerebral cortex reached control level, while in the hippocampus it remained significantly increased. Under chronic stress, the maladaptive inflammatory response in hippocampus was accompanied by a significant increase in local CS levels, as compared to cerebral cortex. Under acute stress, the increased CS level induced changes in CS-regulated genes expression (CRF and IGF1), while this phenomenon was not observed after chronic stress. Thus, the hippocampus appears to be more vulnerable to stress-induced inflammation as compared to the neocortex and demonstrates persistent inflammatory response induced by chronic stress. Stress-induced maladaptive inflammatory response is associated with a selective increase in hippocampal CS accumulation and changes in CS signaling.

Negatively charged air ions are of interest of researchers and physicians as an effective means of prophylaxis and treatment of a wide range of diseases. Our previous studies showed that negatively charged air ions have normalizing effects on important physiological functions in rats subjected to prolonged chronic stress [3] and acute immobilization stress [4]. These studies used either long-lasting (three weeks) exposure to air ions during chronic induction of neurosis or pre-treatment (daily for one week) exposure before acute experiments in the immobilization stress model. It remained unclear whether short periods of exposure to air ions had prophylactic effects during the actual development of immobilization stress. Since the adaptational abilities of the body, especially resistance to stress-inducing factors, can depend on the type of nervous system [1, 2, 6], studies were performed with consideration of the typological characteristics of the animals' behavior. The aim of the present work was to study these points.Experiments were carried out using 64 male Wistar rats (250-350 g). All animals were kept in standard animal-house conditions with natural illumination. Air was ionized using an t~lion-132 device (an up-todate modification of the "Chizhevskii lamp" electroeffluvial air ionizer) for 1 h as animals were immobilized. The intensity of air ion formation was 31.6 ions/sec. Rats were placed 2 m from the air ionizer.llnstitute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.