Effects of forced swimming stress on thyroid function, pituitary thyroid‑stimulating hormone and hypothalamus thyrotropin releasing hormone expression in adrenalectomy Wistar rats

Sun,Qiuyan; Liu,Aihua; Ma,Yanan; Wang,Anyi; Guo,Xinhong; Teng,Weiping; Jiang,Yaqiu

doi:10.3892/etm.2016.3790

Effects of forced swimming stress on thyroid function, pituitary thyroid‑stimulating hormone and hypothalamus thyrotropin releasing hormone expression in adrenalectomy Wistar rats

Authors:
- Qiuyan Sun
- Aihua Liu
- Yanan Ma
- Anyi Wang
- Xinhong Guo
- Weiping Teng
- Yaqiu Jiang
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Affiliations: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Institute of Endocrinology, Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Endocrine Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110001, P.R. China
Published online on: October 11, 2016 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2016.3790
Pages: 3167-3174
Copyright: © Sun et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

In order to study the impact that is imposed on the hypothalamic‑pituitary‑thyroid (HPT) axis of adrenalectomy male Wistar rats by stress caused by swimming, the blood level of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and thyroid‑stimulating hormone (TSH), the expression of TSHβ mRNA at the pituitary and thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) expression at the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) were measured. A total of 50 male Wistar rats of 6‑8 weeks of age and with an average weight of 190‑210 grams were randomly divided into the following two groups: The surgical (without adrenal glands) and non‑surgical (adrenalectomy) group. These two groups were then divided into the following five groups, according to the time delay of sacrifice following forced swim (10 min, 2 h, 12 h and 24 h) and control (not subjected to swimming) groups. A bilateral adrenalectomy animal model was established. Serum TSH in the blood was measurement by chemiluminescent immunoassay, and cerebrum tissue were excised for the measurement of TRH expression using an immunohistochemistry assay. In addition, pituitaries were excised for the extraction of total RNA. Finally, reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed for quantitation of TSHβ. Following swimming, the serum T3, T4 and TSH, the TSHβ mRNA expression levels in the pituitary and the TRH expression in the PVN of the surgical group were gradually increased. In the non‑surgical group, no significant differences were observed in the serum T3, T4 and TSH levels compared with the control group. The TSHβ mRNA expression at the pituitary showed a similar result. Furthermore, the TRH expression at PVN was gradually increased and stress from swimming could increase the blood T4, T3 and TSH levels, TSHβ mRNA expression at the pituitary and TRH expression at the PVN in adrenalectomy Wistar rats. Moreover, the index in the surgical group changed significantly compared with the non‑surgical group. In conclusion, the results suggest that there is a positive correlation between stress from forced swimming and the variation of the HPT axis.

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