earticle

영어

Stress is the physiological responses of organisms to harmful or threat-ening stimuli that allow appropriate behavioral responses to the stress-or. In the present study, the effect of treadmill exercise on stress-in-duced anxiety was evaluated using rats. To induce stress, the rats were exposed to an inescapable electric foot shock. Exposure of rats to the electric foot shock was performed for 7 days. The rats in the exercise groups were made to run on a motorized treadmill for 30 min once a day for 4 weeks stating one day after last electric food shock. Anxiety-like behaviors were determined by open field test and elevated plus-maze test. The expressions of c-Fos and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in the hypothalamus and locus coeruleus were detected by im-munohistochemistry. In the present results, locomotor activity in the center of the open field test and the number of entries and time in the open arms of the elevated plus-maze test were reduced in the rats with stress-induced anxiety. Treadmill running enhanced these locomotor activities, the number of entries and time in the stress-induced anxiety rats. c-Fos and nNOS expressions in the hypothalamus and locus coe-ruleus were increased in the stress-induced rats. Treadmill exercise re-duced c-Fos and nNOS overexpressions in the stress-induced rats. In the present study, treadmill exercise ameliorated anxiety-like behaviors in the stress-induced rats. The improving effect of treadmill exercise on anxiety-like behaviors might be ascribed to the suppressing effect of exercise on c-Fos and nNOS expressions.