RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Behavioral stress has been suggested as one of important factors which destruct the physiologic antioxidant system. Studies about antioxidant activity changes in brain by repeated stress may be valuable data in the clarification of pathogenesis and development of treatment modalities for the psychologic stress-induced somatic disease. METHODS: We examined, therefore, immobilization stress -induced antioxidant defense chages in the rat brain. Superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and, glutathione reductase activities were measured in the dissected specimens of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, striatum, brain stem, cerebellum and hypothalamus of adult male Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to 2 hour immobilization stress for 14 consecutive days. RESULTS: In this study, immobilization inhibited glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase activities in striatum and hypothalamus than any other brain regions. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that striatum and hypothalmus are subject to strong pro-oxidant impacts arising at the repeated immobilization stress.
