A Study of Anxiety-Related Behavior under Conditions of Oxidative Stress Caused by Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract

Any stressful situation in the body can become the cause of intense formation of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules or individual atoms that have unpaired valence electrons in their outer orbit, which are characterized by high reactivity and damage cell proteins, nucleic acids, membrane lipids, and can lead to the development of many types of pathological processes. All possible triggering mechanisms of this process have not been fully explored. It is known that under certain conditions, in response to stressogenic factors, a biologically positive reaction _ adaptive stress response develops in the body which ensures the resistance of cells to stronger (lethal) doses of the stimulating agent of this reaction. The aim of the study was to explore the influence of the hormetic phenomenon on the psycho-emotional state of anxiety which arose from the dose-response of the oxidative stress caused by hydrogen peroxide in an experiment on rats. The experiment was conducted on white male lab rats. As an experimental model of oxidative stress caused by hydrogen peroxide, we used its 0.1% and 0.2% aqueous solutions and administered them orally to animals for different durations (10 and 25 days). The psycho-emotional state of anxiety was assayed by means of the elevated plus maze. The analysis of the obtained results was conducted using the student's t-criterion.The analysis of our results allows us to note that in the experiment under the conditions of chronic action of a low dose of stressogenic factor (hydrogen peroxide H2O2  0.1%), an improvement in the psycho-emotional state of anxiety and its stable maintenance within the maximum limits of the norm can be observed, which must be caused by the influence of the hormetic response. A further increase (doubling of the "dose") of the stressogenic factor (chronic administration of 0.2% aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide) resulted in suppression of the hormesis. It was found that in this experimental model, oxidative stress can play a positive role in the regulation of neuroplasticity and psycho-physiological adaptation.