Aim

While stress causes brain dysfunction, crocin (as an active component of saffron) and exercise (as part of a healthy lifestyle) improve stress-induced memory impairment. The present study investigated the protective effects of crocin administration, exercise, and crocin-accompanied exercise on neuronal excitability and long-term potentiation (LTP) at the CA1 of hippocampus as well as serum corticosterone and glucose levels in rats subjected to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS).

Main methods

Forty-eight male Wistar rats were randomly allocated to six groups: Control, Sham, CUS, CUS-Crocin30, CUS-Exercise, and CUS-Crocin30-Exercise. The chronic unpredictable stress and treadmill running at 20–21 m/min were applied 2 h/day and 1 h/day, respectively, for 21 days. Crocin (30 mg/kg) was daily intraperitoneally injected to the rats. Electrophysiological variables were recorded from the CA1 of hippocampus. While corticosterone and glucose levels were also measured.

Key findings

CUS and CUS-Exercise significantly attenuated excitability and LTP. Compared to the CUS and CUS-Exercise treatments, CUS-Crocin30 and CUS-Crocin30-Exercise led to significant increases in slope and amplitude of field excitatory postsynaptic potential. The changes in serum corticosterone and glucose levels nearly matched the electrophysiological data.

Significance

CUS was found to be a highly destructive stress as it failed to allow exercises to edify the CUS-induced memory deficit. This is while crocin (as a herbal drug) was found more effective than exercise (as a daily routine) in remedying the CUS-induced memory deficit. Also, although the treatment with crocin-accompanied exercise did help recovery from the CUS-induced memory deficit, the interaction of crocin administration and exercise had no synergic effects; the protective effect observed was due to crocin administration rather than the exercise.

中文翻译：

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番红花和运动对慢性不可预测压力下大鼠CA1长期增强作用的保护作用比较研究。

目标

虽然压力会导致脑功能障碍，但番红花（藏红花的活性成分）和运动（健康生活方式的一部分）会改善压力导致的记忆障碍。本研究调查了在长期遭受不可预测压力的大鼠中，施用番红花，运动和番红花色运动对海马CA1区神经元兴奋性和长期增强（LTP）以及血清皮质酮和葡萄糖水平的保护作用（ CUS）。

主要方法

48只雄性Wistar大鼠随机分为六组：对照组，假手术，CUS，CUS-Crocin30，CUS-Exercise和CUS-Crocin30-Exercise。慢性不可预测的压力和跑步机以20–21 m / min的速度运行2天/天和1 h /天，持续21天。每天腹膜内向大鼠腹腔注射番红花（30 mg / kg）。从海马CA1记录电生理变量。同时还测量了皮质酮和葡萄糖水平。

主要发现

CUS和CUS-Exercise大大降低了兴奋性和LTP。与CUS和CUS锻炼相比，CUS-Crocin30和CUS-Crocin30-锻炼导致场兴奋性突触后电位的斜率和幅度显着增加。血清皮质酮和葡萄糖水平的变化几乎符合电生理数据。

意义

CUS被发现具有高度破坏性的压力，因为它无法让运动来证明CUS引起的记忆缺陷。与此相反，在纠正CUS引起的记忆力低下时，发现番红花（作为草药）比运动（作为日常活动）更有效。同样，尽管用番红花素进行的运动治疗确实有助于从CUS引起的记忆力障碍中恢复过来，但番红花素给药和运动之间的相互作用没有协同作用。观察到的保护作用是由于番红花给药而不是运动。