Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
J Neurotrauma. 2010 Jun;27(6):1047-57. doi: 10.1089/neu.2010.1313.
Several studies have shown that housing rats in an enriched environment (EE) after traumatic brain injury (TBI) improves functional and histological outcome. The typical EE includes exploratory, sensory, and social components in cages that are often vastly larger than standard (STD) housing. It is uncertain, however, whether a single or specific component is sufficient to confer these benefits after TBI, or if all, perhaps in an additive or synergistic manner, are necessary. To clarify this ambiguity, anesthetized adult male rats were subjected to either a controlled cortical impact or sham injury, and then were randomly assigned to five different housing paradigms: (1) EE (typical), (2) EE (-social), (3) EE (-stimuli), (4) STD (typical), and (5) STD (+stimuli). Motor and cognitive function were assessed using conventional motor (beam-balance/traversal) and cognitive (spatial learning in a Morris water maze) tests on postoperative days 1-5 and 14-19, respectively, and cortical lesion volume and CA1/CA3 cell loss were quantified at 3 weeks. No significant differences were observed among the sham groups in any comparison and thus their data were pooled (i.e., SHAM). In the TBI groups, typical EE improved beam-balance versus both STD (+stimuli) and EE (-social), it facilitated the acquisition of spatial learning and memory retention versus all other housing conditions (p < 0.003), and it reduced lesion volume and CA3 cell loss versus STD (typical) housing. While rats in the three atypical EE conditions exhibited slightly better cognitive performance and histological protection versus the typical STD group, the overall effects were not significant. These data suggest that exposing TBI rats to any of the three components individually may be more advantageous than no enrichment, but only exposure to typical EE yields optimal benefits.
几项研究表明，创伤性脑损伤 (TBI) 后将大鼠饲养在丰富环境 (EE) 中可改善功能和组织学结果。典型的 EE 包括在笼子中探索、感觉和社交成分，这些笼子通常比标准 (STD) 住房大得多。然而，尚不确定单一或特定成分是否足以在 TBI 后带来这些益处，或者是否需要所有成分（可能以累加或协同方式）。为了澄清这种歧义，麻醉成年雄性大鼠接受了控制性皮质撞击或假损伤，然后随机分配到五种不同的饲养范式：（1）EE（典型），（2）EE（无社交），（3）EE（无刺激），（4）STD（典型）和（5）STD（有刺激）。术后第 1-5 天和第 14-19 天，分别使用传统的运动（横梁平衡/穿越）和认知（Morris 水迷宫中的空间学习）测试评估运动和认知功能，并且在 3 周时量化皮质损伤体积和 CA1/CA3 细胞丢失。在任何比较中，假损伤组之间均未观察到显着差异，因此将其数据合并（即 SHAM）。在 TBI 组中，与 STD（有刺激）和 EE（无社交）相比，典型 EE 改善了横梁平衡，它促进了空间学习的获取和记忆保留，优于所有其他饲养条件（p <0.003），并且它减少了损伤体积和 CA3 细胞丢失与 STD（典型）住房。尽管在三个非典型 EE 条件下的大鼠表现出稍好的认知表现和组织学保护作用，但总体效果并不显著。这些数据表明，将 TBI 大鼠暴露于任何三种成分中的一种可能比没有富集更有利，但仅暴露于典型 EE 可带来最佳益处。
