FIG. 2.

Effect of double exposure to repeated unpredictable stress (RUS) on body weight gain. During the first exposure to stress and/or repeated mild traumatic brain injury (r-mTBI; 1st RUS), animals in the stress and stress+r-mTBI groups showed a significant reduction in their body weight gain throughout the 21 days of stress (A). Stress and/or r-mTBI procedures were repeated 3 months after initial stress (2nd RUS). All stress and/or r-mTBI groups showed significant weight loss during the second RUS relative to the control group (B). Animals in the stress+r-mTBI group showed a greater weight loss when compared with the r-mTBI-only group at days 118 and 125 (B). Data in (A) and (B) were analyzed using three-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a two-way ANOVA at each day as described in the materials and methods section (n = 9-11). Two-stage linear step-up procedure of Benjamini, Krieger and Yekutieli (BKY) was used to correct for multiple comparisons. Statistically significant discoveries versus the control group are denoted by “*”, while statistically significant discoveries versus the r-mTBI group are denoted by “&”. Color image is available online.