Author's Name:	Hemalatha Bangera, Billakanti Prakash Babu, Antony Sylvan D’Souza, Manjula S D & Mohandas Rao K
Subject Area:	Health Science
Subject	Other
Section	Research Paper

Restraint Stress, Neurodegeneration, Cingulate Cortex, Substantia nigra, Albino Mice, Histomorphology.

Any stimulus which displaces the state of normal physiological function can cause stress and it has been shown to produce deleterious effect on the brain just as it does in other body organs. This study was conducted to observe the effect of short and long duration of restraint stress on neurons of cingulate gyrus and substantia nigra .Experiments were conducted to observe the effect of restraint stress applied at different duration i.e. short duration of 5 days and longer durations of 21 and 60 days. BALB/C strain of adult mice were restrained for 6 hours daily for 5/21/60 day in separate group in wire mesh restrainer which consisted of a wooden platform to which a wire mesh was attached. Age matched normal mice served as control group. Numbers of surviving (healthy) neuronal cell bodies were counted in both control and experimental groups. Recorded parameters were subjected to statistical analysis between the groups. The results of the study showed neurodegenerative changes in the stressed group than control and as the stress duration increased severe neurodegenerative changes were observed. Significant neurodegenerative changes are seen in 60 day stressed cingulate gyrus sections compared to others.