Department of Psychology, The Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Hippocampus. 2012 Sep;22(9):1860-7. doi: 10.1002/hipo.22020. Epub 2012 Mar 30.
Running increases the formation of new neurons in the adult rodent hippocampus. However, the function of new neurons generated from running is currently unknown. One hypothesis is that new neurons from running contribute to enhanced cognitive function by increasing plasticity in the adult hippocampus. An alternative hypothesis is that new neurons generated from running incorporate into experience-specific hippocampal networks that only become active during running. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if new neurons generated from running are selectively activated by running, or can become recruited into granule cell activity occurring during performance on other behavioral tasks that engage the hippocampus. Therefore, the activation of new 5-6 week neurons was detected using BrdU, NeuN, and Zif268 triple-label immunohistochemistry in cohorts of female running and sedentary adult C57BL/6J mice following participation in one of three different tasks: the Morris water maze, novel environment exploration, or wheel running. Results showed that running and sedentary mice displayed a nearly equivalent proportion of new neurons that expressed Zif268 following each task. Since running approximately doubled the number of new neurons, the results demonstrated that running mice had a greater number of new neurons recruited into the Zif268 induction in the granule cell layer following each task than sedentary mice. The results suggest that new neurons incorporated into hippocampal circuitry from running are not just activated by wheel running itself, but rather become broadly recruited into granule cell layer activity during distinct behavioral experiences.
跑步会增加成年啮齿动物海马体中新神经元的形成。然而，目前尚不清楚由跑步产生的新神经元的功能。一种假设是，通过增加成年海马体的可塑性，跑步产生的新神经元有助于增强认知功能。另一种假设是，跑步产生的新神经元整合到经验特异性海马体网络中，这些网络仅在跑步时活跃。本实验的目的是确定跑步产生的新神经元是否仅由跑步选择性激活，或者是否可以被招募到参与其他涉及海马体的行为任务的颗粒细胞活动中。因此，通过 BrdU、NeuN 和 Zif268 三重免疫组织化学检测，在参与三种不同任务（Morris 水迷宫、新环境探索或轮式跑步）的雌性跑步和久坐成年 C57BL/6J 小鼠的队列中检测到新生成的 5-6 周神经元的激活。结果表明，跑步和久坐的小鼠在完成每个任务后，表达 Zif268 的新神经元的比例几乎相等。由于跑步使新神经元的数量增加了约两倍，结果表明，与久坐的小鼠相比，跑步的小鼠在完成每个任务后，有更多的新神经元被招募到颗粒细胞层中的 Zif268 诱导中。结果表明，来自跑步的整合到海马体回路中的新神经元不仅被轮式跑步本身激活，而且在不同的行为体验中广泛被招募到颗粒细胞层活动中。
