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

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 (TNFa, IL-1ß, IL-6 and MCP-1) was validated via real-time PCR and the all showed increased expression levels with chronic unpredictable stress.本研究采用慢性不可预见性应激（chronic unpredictable stress, CUS）大鼠模型，该模型可诱导出与人类相似的焦虑样表型，且经多篇已发表文献验证，是一款特性明确、预测效度优异的抑郁症状模型。本研究通过高通量多重检测技术测定细胞因子与活化细胞内激酶的水平；从新鲜分离的脂肪细胞中提取总RNA，对对照组与应激组大鼠开展全基因组表达微阵列分析；通过氚标记葡萄糖摄取实验评估脂肪细胞功能；并采用实时定量PCR验证了4种细胞因子（肿瘤坏死因子α[TNF-α]、白细胞介素1β[IL-1β]、白细胞介素6[IL-6]及单核细胞趋化蛋白1[MCP-1]）的表达水平，结果显示慢性不可预见性应激下上述细胞因子的表达水平均显著升高。