Figure 6.

Chronic stress leads to dendritic hypertrophy in the BA principal neurons. A, Schematic of experimental protocol: individual neurons and neighboring astrocytes were filled using Alexa Fluor 488 and Alexa Fluor 568, respectively, by sharp electrode iontophoresis. A confocal image of dye-filled neuron superimposed with concentric Sholl spheres (right). B, Representative confocal image of BA principal neurons (green) with neighboring astrocytes (red). CIS leads to dendritic hypertrophy in the neurons whereas the astrocytes undergo a reduction in their neuropil volume in BA. C, Sholl profile of principal neurons in BA: chronic stress causes significant hypertrophy in the distal branches of BA principal neurons (two-way repeated measures ANOVA: p < 0.05, branches between 70 and 80 µm from the soma significantly different in Tukey’s multiple comparison test *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; control: N = 7 animals, n = 33 cells, stress: N = 8 animals, n = 31 cells). D, Chronic stress causes significant increase in the total branch points of principal neurons in BA (Student’s unpaired t test, **p < 0.01). E, Chronic stress causes mild increase in the total dendritic length of principal neurons in BA. Bar insert, Number of animals and number of cells (in parentheses). Scale bar: 50 µm.