Chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) was used to study the effects of a long-term treatment with either caffeine (8 mg/kg, orally) or desipramine (DMI) (10 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) in Wistar rats. The CUS procedure was applied for 6 weeks. Animals underwent a 2-week drug-free CUS procedure. Drugs were administered for 4 weeks alongside the stress and both drug and stress were continued throughout the behavioral testing period. CUS-exposed rats showed depressive-like behavior with reduced weight gain, reduced consumption of sucrose solution, increased immobility in the forced swimming test, and hypolocomotion in an open field. For the open field and elevated plus maze, calculation of an anxiety index confirmed that CUS increased anxiety, which was accompanied by an increase in the core temperature. DMI counteracted these physical and behavioral changes. Caffeine caused similar effects to DMI on weight gain, motor activity, anxiety level, and core temperature. In CUS-exposed rats, caffeine showed antidepressant and anxiolytic activity, accompanied by increased hippocampal dopamine and serotonin levels. However, no significant change in weight gain or core temperature was observed after caffeine treatment in CUS-exposed rats. These results suggest that, similar to the antidepressant DMI, long-term caffeine exposure exerts an antidepressant and anxiolytic effect in the CUS model. The involvement of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems is discussed.
1. Extracellular recordings were obtained from 94 warm-sensitive, 6 cold-sensitive and 117 temperature-insensitive neurones in slices of the hypothalamic medial preoptic area of rats, to determine the effect of the GABAA agonist muscimol, the GABAA antagonist bicuculline, the GABAB agonist baclofen and the GABAB antagonist phaclofen on tonic activity and temperature sensitivity.2. Muscimol and baclofen dose-dependently inhibited the tonic activity of 69% (36/52) and 97 % (36/37) of the hypothalamic neurones, respectively, regardless of their type of thermosensitivity. In contrast, the GABAA antagonist bicuculline increased the tonic activity of the majority of neurones (58/83), while the GABAB antagonist phaclofen increased neuronal activity only in the high dose of 100 AIM. 3. The temperature sensitivity of hypothalamic neurones was only changed by ligands of GABAB receptors, and this effect was restricted to warm-sensitive neurones. The temperature coefficient (TC) was significantly increased by the GABAB agonist baclofen (ATC = 0-69 + 0-11 imp s-0C-1, P< 0.01, n = 18). In contrast, the GABAB antagonist phaclofen (10 uM) decreased the temperature sensitivity (ATC = -0-67 + 0 09 imp s-' 0C-, P < 0.01, n = 10) in doses which did not affect tonic activity. 4. The increase in temperature sensitivity due to the GABAB agonist baclofen was significantly enhanced by co-perfusion of the GABAA antagonist bicuculline, indicating an interaction of GABAA and GABAB receptor-mediated mechanisms with regard to neuronal thermosensitivity.5. The results suggest that neurones in the medial preoptic area are subject to GABA-mediated tonic inhibition resulting in modulation of tonic activity and temperature sensitivity of warm-sensitive neurones possibly involved in the control of body temperature. The data support the hypothesis that the hypo-or hyperthermic action of an endogenous substance is related to its effect on the thermosensitivity rather than on tonic activity of hypothalamic neurones.
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