A prognostic study on the effect of post-traumatic stress disorder on cerebral ischaemia reperfusion-induced stroke

Abstract

Objectives

Previous studies have been established that persons who experienced a stroke are soon likely to develop several anxiety disorders. In which one of the major anxiety disorders is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Yet, the likelihood of PTSD in conjunction with cerebral stroke has not been well described. Hence, we evaluated the impact of PTSD on cerebral stroke in rodents subjected to single prolonged stress (SPS) and bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAo), respectively.

Methods

The relation between PTSD and cerebral stroke is evaluated by performing behavioural, biochemical, histopathological, and brain lesion area measurement studies.

Results

Interestingly, SPS + BCCAo induction increased behavioural abnormalities like cognitive impairment and anxiety-like behaviour compared to SPS and BCCAo groups alone. Motor impairment was also observed in SPS + BCCAo rats compared to SPS rats, whereas no change with BCCAo rats. Furthermore, increased brain tissue MDA, acetylcholinesterase, and decreased SOD, catalase, and GSH were observed in SPS + BCCAo subjected rats compared to SPS and BCCAo rats alone. Additionally, SPS + BCCAo induction considerably increased the plasma corticosterone levels and caused severe neurotransmitter alterations. The SPS + BCCAo exposure significantly increased the brain lesion area in comparison with BCCAo rats. Moreover, severe histopathological alterations were observed in the hippocampus (CA1) of SPS + BCCAo rats compared to SPS and BCCAo rats alone.

Conclusions

In conclusion, our study results suggested that SPS-induced PTSD may aggravate the BCCAo induced cerebral ischaemia-reperfusion injury.

Keywords:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• single prolonged stress
• bilateral common carotid artery occlusion
• histopathology
• brain lesion area measurement

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar, and Guntur, India. The authors are thankful to Prof. A Prameela Rani, University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar, Guntur, for their kind cooperation.

Ethical approval

The experimental protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Ethical Committee (1725/GO/Re/S/13/CPCSEA) of Acharya Nagarjuna University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, with an approval number (ANUCPS/IAEC/AH/P/8/2019), and all the experiments were conducted as per the committee for the purpose of control and supervision of experiments on animals (CPCSEA) guidelines, Govt. of India. The article does not contain any studies related to human participants.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.