Chronic Psychological Stress regulates Visceral Adipocyte-mediated Glucose Metabolism and Inflammatory Circuits in male Rats. Rattus norvegicus

In this study we employed the chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) rat model that leads to anxiety features comparable to humans and validated in several published reports as a well-characterized model of depression symptoms with high predictive validity. Cytokines and activated intracellular kinase levels were determined using high throughput multiplex assays. RNA from freshly isolated adipocytes was used to run whole genome expression microarray profiling in control and stressed rats. Adipocyte function was assessed via tritiated glucose uptake assay. The expression of four cytokines (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6 and MCP-1) was validated via real-time PCR and the all showed increased expression levels with chronic unpredictable stress. Overall design: Male rats were subjected to chronic unpredictable stress for 35 days and total body fat was measured. The analyses presented here represents data from experiments performed in 6 control and 6 stressed rats in parallel. All cells for RNA isolation were collected at the conclusion of the 35 day stress protocol.