Lesión fototrombótica en la corteza prefrontal medial izquierda en ratas adultas: ¿un modelo para el estudio de la depresión posictus?

Objective: Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, often resulting in post-stroke depression (PSD), a common neuropsychiatric consequence affecting survivors' quality of life.This study aimed to determine whether the photothrombotic lesion technique is a suitable model for studying PSD.Methods: The photothrombotic lesion method could effectively induce a depression-like phenotype in rats, facilitating the study of PSD without causing significant motor deficits.An ischemic lesion was induced in the left medial prefrontal cortex of 43 male Wistar rats.Depression-like behavior was assessed using the sucrose preference test and the forced swim test (FST) at 14-and 30-days post-stroke (DPS), respectively.The beam walking test (BWT) was used to evaluate motor function at 30 DPS.Results: Stroke rats showed reduced sucrose preference at 14 DPS, indicating anhedonia.However, no significant differences were observed in the FST or BWT at 30 days.Conclusions: The photothrombotic lesion model showed potential for studying PSD, but the behavioral results were inconclusive.Future research should include depression biomarkers to better assess the model's validity.