ABSTRACT
Background:The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of EE on the morphology of pyramidal neuron at the motor cortex of diabetic and stressed rats.Methods and materials:Male Wistar rats were grouped into Normal Control (NC), Vehicle Control (VC), Diabetes (D), Diabetes + Stress (D+S), Diabetes + Environmental Enrichment (D+EE) and Diabetes + Stress +Environmental Enrichment (D+S+EE) (n=8). Hyperglycemia was induced in Westar rats using streptozotocin (40mg/kg; ip). Blood sugar levels and body weight was measured at regular intervals to monitor the development of hyperglycemia. All experimental groups were housed in standard cages throughout the experiment. Rats in groups D+S and D+S+EE were transferred into space restrained cages for 6 hours daily. D+S+EE group were transferred into EE cages immediately after the space restrained session for subsequent 6 hours daily. On day 30, all rats were sacrificed and brains were harvested and prepared for rapid Golgi staining protocol. Dendritic branchings and dendriticintersections of the motor cortex neurons were quantitated using a camera lucida attached to Biolux research microscope. Data was analyzed using ANOVA with Bonferroni’s test.