Voluntary wheel running in male mice mitigates select hyperglycemia-induced depressive-like behaviors and modulates BDNF and Tnf in a brain region-specific manner
Diabetes is associated with an increased risk for depression. Emerging data suggests this effect is partly mediated by hyperglycemia-associated neuroinflammation and decreased BDNF. While exercise reduces depressive symptoms in other models of depres...
Key Findings
Diabetes is associated with an increased risk for depression. Emerging data suggests this effect is partly mediated by hyperglycemia-associated neuroinflammation and decreased BDNF. While exercise reduces depressive symptoms in other models of depression, limited research has investigated the efficacy of voluntary exercise for hyperglycemia-induced depression. Thus, we examined whether chronic voluntary exercise could rescue hyperglycemia-related affective dysfunction, reduce neuroinflammation, and increase BDNF levels in male C57BL/6J mice. Hyperglycemia was induced via administration of 50 mg/kg/day streptozotocin (STZ) over 5 consecutive days. Four weeks post-STZ, mice in the exercise group were provided running wheels in their home cage for approximately 7 weeks. As anticipated, STZ induced depressive-like behavior. Exercise attenuated behavioral deficits in the forced swim and splash test and increased BDNF expression within the brain. However, other depressive-like behaviors (i.e., open field activity, nest building, marble burying, and fear conditioning) and cerebellar Tnf expression failed to respond to exercise. This study provides novel evidence that a subset of hyperglycemia-induced depressive-like behaviors are responsive to voluntary exercise while others remain exercise-resistant. This emphasizes the potential benefit of exercise as a part of a multimodal treatment strategy for hyperglycemia-related depression.
Why This Matters for Body-Mind Practice
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