Acute-stress induces the structural plasticity in hippocampal neurons of 15 and 30-day-old chick, Gallus gallus domesticus

To study the stress effect on neuronal architecture in the avian hippocampus (a vital component of the neural circuitry mediating stress responses), chick constitutes an interesting animal model. The hippocampus due to its susceptible and vulnerable nature towards acute-stress effect shows pronounced structural and morphological plasticity. Therefore, to perform a detailed investigation of the acute-stress effect on neuronal architecture in the hippocampus, the present study targets to examine the role of a single acute-stress session of 24-hours food and water deprivation in inducing structural plasticity in 15 and 30-day-old chick by using Golgi-Cox staining technique.The findings of the present study have displayed that the chick hippocampus contains highly spinous multipolar, pyramidal, and stellate neuronal cells, along with four variably shaped spines namely filopodia, thin, stubby, and mushroom, over their dendritic branches. In the hippocampus of a 15-day-old chick, the multipolar projection and the stellate neurons show a significant decrease in their spine density under acute-stress, while the pyramidal projection neurons show a significant increase. All the hippocampus neuronal cells of 30-day-old chicks have shown a significant decrease in their dendritic spine density under stressful environment. Therefore, the present research study establishes structural plasticity in hippocampus neurons due to changes in environmental conditions that may affect the animal's behavior.