• Caroline Calice da Silva, Camilla Lazzaretti, Tiago Fontanive, Daniela Ravizzoni Dartora, Brian Bauereis, and Giovana Duzzo Gamaro.
• Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Feevale, ERS 239, 2755, Novo Hamburgo 93352-000, RS, Brazil; Laboratório de Neurociências, Instituto de Pesquisas Biomédicas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul - PUCRS, Av. Ipiranga 6690, Porto Alegre 90160-090, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: caroline.silva@pucrs.br.
• Behav. Processes. 2014 Mar 1; 103: 327-33.

AbstractStress has been shown to negatively affect the immune system, alter the body's metabolism, and play a strong role in the development of mood disorders. These effects are mainly driven through the release of hormones from the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). Additionally, women are more likely to be affected by stress due to the estrogen fluctuation associated with their menstrual cycle. This study aims to evaluate the effect of chronic restraint stress, applied for 30 days, and estrogen replacement on behavior, glucose level, and the lipid profile of ovariectomized rats. Our results suggest that stress increases sweet food consumption in OVX females treated with estradiol (E2), but reduces consumption in animals not treated. Furthermore, stress increases locomotor activity and anxiety as assessed by the Open Field test and in the Elevated Plus Maze. Similarly, our results suggest that E2 increases anxiety in female rats under the same behavioral tests. In addition, stress reduces glucose and TC levels. Moreover, stress increase TG levels in the presence of E2 and decrease in its absence, as well as the estradiol increase TG levels in stressed groups and reduced in non-stressed groups. Our data suggest an important interaction between stress and estrogen, showing that hormonal status can induce changes in the animal's response to stress. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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