Repeated transcranial direct current stimulation induces behavioral, metabolic and neurochemical effects in rats on high-calorie diet

Due to its high prevalence, obesity is considered an epidemic, which stimulated research on non-invasive methods to reduce excess body fat. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive technique used to modulate the activity of cerebral cortex, which has already found increasing interest in medicine as a promising methodology. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of tDCS on feeding behavior, metabolic abnormalities and neurotransmitters in certain brain areas involved in appetite control of obese rats. The male Wistar rats were divided into five subgroups depending on consumed diet effect (lean, obese) and tDCS type (anodal, cathodal, sham, and no stimulation). Two 10-min daily sessions of tDCS for 8 consecutive days of the study were applied. Rats subjected to active tDCS (anodal right or cathodal left of the prefrontal cortex) had reduced appetite and showed lesser body weight gain than the animals subjected to sham procedure or those receiving no stimulation at all. Furthermore, tDCS contributed to reduction of epididymal fat pads and to a decrease in blood concentration of leptin. Neurochemical examination revealed that tDCS modulated serotonin pathways of the reward-related brain areas and contributed to a significant decrease in the density of D2 but not D1 dopamine receptors in the dorsal striatum, recorded 5 h after the last stimulation. No significant effect of tDCS on dopamine and it's metabolites in examined brain regions was observed. It seems that the hypothalamus was not affected by tDCS application as no changes in measured neurotransmitters were detected at any examined time point. However, these results do not exclude the possibility of the delayed response of the monoamines in the examined brain areas to tDCS application. Altogether, these findings imply that repeated tDCS of the prefrontal cortex may change feeding behavior of obese rats. Either right anodal or left cathodal tDCS were sufficient to decrease food intake, to reduce body adiposity and to normalize other metabolic anomalies. These beneficial effects can be at least partially explained by changes in serotoninergic and in lesser extent dopaminergic system activity within some brain areas belonging to reward system

Peripheral vagus nerve stimulation significantly affects lipid composition and protein secondary structure within dopamine-related brain regions in rats

Recent immunohistochemical studies point to the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve as the point of departure of initial changes which are related to the gradual pathological developments in the dopaminergic system. In the light of current investigations, it is likely that biochemical changes within the peripheral nervous system may influence the physiology of the dopaminergic system, suggesting a putative role for it in the development of neurodegenerative disorders. By using Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy, coupled with statistical analysis, we examined the effect of chronic, unilateral electrical vagus nerve stimulation on changes in lipid composition and in protein secondary structure within dopamine-related brain structures in rats. It was found that the chronic vagal nerve stimulation strongly affects the chain length of fatty acids within the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, substantia nigra, striatum, dorsal motor nucleus of vagus and the motor cortex. In particular, the level of lipid unsaturation was found significantly increasing in the ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra and motor cortex as a result of vagal nerve stimulation. When it comes to changes in protein secondary structure, we could see that the mesolimbic, mesocortical and nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathways are particularly affected by vagus nerve stimulation. This is due to the co-occurrence of statistically significant changes in the content of non-ordered structure components, alpha helices, beta sheets, and the total area of Amide I. Macromolecular changes caused by peripheral vagus nerve stimulation may highlight a potential connection between the gastrointestinal system and the central nervous system in rat during the development of neurodegenerative disorders