Key result
Rats susceptible to social defeat stress exhibited resting tachycardia and an exaggerated mean arterial pressure response to acute restraint stress compared to resilient and control rats.
Why the study?
It was not known how the cardiovascular system of susceptible versus resilient phenotypes responds to a novel stressor following social defeat stress exposure.
Does acute restraint stress alter cardiovascular reactivity in rats susceptible to social defeat stress compared to resilient and control rats?
Does acute restraint stress alter cardiovascular reactivity in rats susceptible to social defeat stress compared to resilient and control rats?
Rats susceptible to social defeat stress exhibit increased cardiovascular reactivity to novel stressors, suggesting a potential mechanism for increased cardiovascular disease risk in stress-susceptible individuals.
May link stress susceptibility to CV reactivity in rats; leaves open human translation and therapeutic relevance.
Prolonged and heightened responses to stress are known factors that influence the development of mood disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, the coping strategies related to the experience of adverse events, i.e., resilience or the susceptibility to stress, are determinants for the individual risk of developing such diseases. Susceptible rats to the social defeat stress (SDS), identified by the social interaction test (SIT), show behavioral and cardiovascular alterations after SDS exposure that are not found in resilient rats. However, it is not elucidated yet how the cardiovascular system of susceptible and resilient phenotypes responds to a new stressor after SDS exposure. Thus, using the SDS exposure followed by the SIT, we evaluated heart rate, blood pressure (BP), tail skin temperature, and circulating corticosterone responses to an acute session of restraint stress in susceptible and resilient rats to SDS. Susceptible rats showed resting tachycardia and exaggerated BP response to restraint stress, while resilient rats did not present such alterations. In contrast, both phenotypes showed increased plasma corticosterone and a drop in tail skin temperature to restraint stress, which was similar to that observed in control animals. Our results revealed an increased cardiovascular reactivity in response to a new stressful stimulus in susceptible rats, which might be related to a greater risk for the development of cardiovascular diseases.
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Morais‐Silva et al. (2022) studied Stress susceptibility and resilience (n=22). Susceptibility to Social Defeat Stress vs. Resilient phenotype and unstressed controls was evaluated on Mean arterial pressure (MAP) response to acute restraint stress (p=<0.05). Rats susceptible to social defeat stress exhibited resting tachycardia and an exaggerated mean arterial pressure response to acute restraint stress compared to resilient and control rats.
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