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Selected Publication:
Kramer, V.
Effects of dextran sulphate sodium-induced colitis and kappa opioid antagonism on stress induced Iba-1 expression within the murine limbic system
Humanmedizin; [Diplomarbeit] Medical University of Graz;2019. pp. 61
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- Authors Med Uni Graz:
- Advisor:
- Holzer Peter
- Reichmann Florian
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- Abstract:
- Psychological stress is associated with a variety of different mental and health disorders such as anxiety, depression but also diabetes and cardiovascular diseases like ischemic heart disease and stroke. Given that a large number of deaths worldwide are attributable to diseases linked to stress, research in drug development to alleviate some or all of the negative symptoms of stress stands a high hope of reducing the number of premature deaths worldwide by a significant extent. In this present study, the effects of the kappa-opioid-receptor (KOR) antagonist, norbinaltorphimine (norBNI) and dextran-sulphate sodium (DSS) induced colitis on the cerebral microglia in C57BL/6N mice were examined under conditions of water-avoidance-stress. Microglia was observed in nine regions of interest (ROI) in the brain: the cingulate cortex (CC), region 1 of the cornu ammonis (CA1), region 3 of the cornu ammonis (CA3), the medial amygdala (MeA), the substantia nigra (SN), the dentate gyrus (DG), the infralimbic cortex (ILC), the lateral hypothalamus (LH) and the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVH). To visualise the activity of brain microglial cells, immunohistochemistry (IHC) for Ionized calcium-binding adaptor Molecule 1 (Iba 1), a marker of microglial activation was performed and evaluated by measuring the area of Iba-1 positive cells within a 300x300 µm counting area except for the PVH and DG, where all the cells within this clearly defined brain areas were included. norBNI led to a significant reduction in the number of Iba-1 expressing cells in the ILC. These changes are likely attributable to the fact that this region is amongst the first to be involved in the stress response and therefore is the first to show the effects of stress as could be seen in other studies involving norBNI.