Chronic Stress Responses in Adult Rodent Models
Summary
Chronic stress paradigms in adult rodents typically involve repeated or sustained exposure to aversive stimuli—such as restraint, predator odour, loud noise or social defeat—over days or weeks. Behaviourally, such regimens induce persistent anxiety‐like phenotypes, cognitive impairments in tasks of learning and memory, altered social interactions and anhedonia. Endocrine adaptations centre on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis: initial hyperactivation elevates corticosterone, whereas prolonged challenge can lead to diminished glucocorticoid responses, reflecting habituation or allostatic overload. At the neural level, chronic stress drives structural remodelling in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and amygdala, including dendritic retraction, synaptic spine alterations and neurogenesis suppression. Molecularly, these processes are underpinned by shifts in gene expression across neurotransmitter pathways, neurotrophic factors and oxidative‐reductive balance. Collectively, adult rodent models elucidate mechanisms of stress adaptation and maladaptation, informing strategies to mitigate stress‐related pathologies and guiding translational efforts towards novel therapeutics.
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Chronic Stress Responses in Adult Rodent Models publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in chronic stress responses in adult rodent models across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Allostasis: Process by which the body achieves stability through physiological or behavioural change in response to stress.
Habituation: Decrease in response to a repeated, unchanging stimulus over time.
HPA axis: Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, the endocrine system governing stress hormone release.
Oxidative stress: Imbalance between reactive oxygen species production and antioxidant defences, leading to cellular damage.
Transcriptome: Complete set of RNA transcripts present in a cell or tissue at a given time.
References
- Determination of steady-state transcriptome modifications associated with repeated homotypic stress in the rat rostral posterior hypothalamic region. Frontiers in Neuroscience (2023).
- Oxidant/antioxidant effects of chronic exposure to predator odor in prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hypothalamus. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2015).
- Evaluation of behavioral responses to restraint stress in the house mouse (Mus musculus musculus) of wild origin. Bioscience Journal (2024).
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