Histological Evaluation of Pancreas Following Early Life Stress in Exposure to Pubertal Stress in Male Rats

Background and purpose: Stressful events in early-life induce metabolic disorders in adolescence. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early-life stress on number or area of Langerhans islets in exposure to foot-shock and psychological stress in male rats. Materials and methods: The rats were divided into six groups: control (without stress), early-stress (stress at 2 weeks of age), pubertal-foot shock (at 8-10 weeks of age), pubertal-psychological stress (psychological stress at 8-10 weeks of age), early-stress + pubertal-foot shock (stress at 2 weeks and foot-shock at 8-10 weeks of age), early-stress + pubertal-psychological stress (early-stress at 2 weeks and psychological stress at 8-10 weeks of age). Stress was induced for five consecutive days (twice daily). At the end of the experiment, following anesthesia with pentobarbital, the rats were decapitated and dissected to remove pancreas tissue to measure the number and area of islets. Results: Early-life and pubertal stresses alone did not change the number or area of islets. Compared to other interventions, early-life psychological-stress could considerably change the number or area of pancreatic islets. Conclusion: Early life stress predisposes the organism to morphological changes in endocrine pancreas as an increase in Langerhans islets number or area in exposure to stress later in life.