Figure 1.

Experimental paradigm. Adult male Sprague Dawley rats were subjected to the stress procedure for 3 weeks and then sacrificed by decapitation after 24 hours from the last stressor. The brains were rapidly removed for hippocampal slices preparation. The slices, after a period of adaptation in oxygenated Krebs buffer, were incubated for 15 minutes in presence or absence of KCl 50 mM to test the effects of ex vivo depolarization. After the incubation period, hippocampal slices were collected, frozen on dry ice, and stored at −80°C until the molecular analyses.