Effects of uniform rocking exercise on anxiety and its related nuclei in acutely stressed rats

Abstract Rocking can make us feel relaxed and reduce anxiety. Now it has been proved that uniform rocking exercise can promote sleep in rodents, but there are less studies on whether it affects anxiety. The objective of this experiment is to explain the effect of uniform rocking exercise on anxiety level in rats under acute stress, using plantar electrical stimulation can induce acute stress model, which was verified by the open field test and elevated plus-mest. In addition, the levels of anxiety-related hormones adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone (CORT) were examined by serum Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA), and it was found that the anxiety level of rats, as well as the levels of ACTH and CORT, were significantly reduced after 1 hour of rocking. In addition, we examined the anxiety-related nuclei by C-fos and found that uniform rocking motion decreased neural activity in the hippocampus (HIP) and amygdala (AMY) and increased neural activity in the vestibular nucleus in rats under acute stress. In addition, we examined the expression of Iba1, a marker of microglia. We found that uniform rocking exercise alleviated anxiety levels in acutely stressed rats, which may be related to the activation of microglia in the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and vestibular nucleus. Our study reveals a significant correlation between the ability of rocking to alleviate anxiety, activation of neural nuclei, and microglia in acutely stressed rats.