Chen Xiuping, Zhang Xin, Liao Weijing, Wan Qi
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169 Donghu Street, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, China.
Department of Physiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Wuhan University, 169 Donghu Street, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, China.
Neurochem Res. 2017 May;42(5):1308-1316. doi: 10.1007/s11064-016-2172-x. Epub 2017 Jan 12.
Treatment of enriched environment (EE) exerts neuroprotective effect in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, how the component of EE contributes to the functional recovery after brain ischemia remains unclear. Here we examined the effect of physical and social components of EE on poststroke astrocytes proliferation using an animal model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) followed by reperfusion. Rats were divided into five groups: physical enrichment group (PE), social enrichment group (SE), physical and social enrichment group (PSE), ischemia + standard group (IS) and sham-operated + standard group (SS). In a set of behavioral tests, we demonstrated that animals in the enriched groups exhibited improved functional outcomes compared with those in standard group. Reduced infarct volume was only observed in PSE and PE groups. Double immunofluorescent labeling and western blot analysis revealed that rats in PSE and PE groups showed significantly more proliferated astrocytes and higher expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the periinfarct cortex, compared with those in SE group. Astrocytes proliferation and BDNF expression were significantly correlated with functional outcomes. Collectively, this study suggests that physical activity is a more important component of EE regarding the effect on astrocytes proliferation and BDNF expression, which may contribute to the improved neurological function of stroke animals.
丰富环境（EE）疗法对脑缺血/再灌注（I/R）损伤具有神经保护作用。然而，EE的各个组成部分如何促进脑缺血后的功能恢复仍不清楚。在此，我们使用大脑中动脉闭塞（MCAO）再灌注动物模型，研究了EE的身体和社交组成部分对中风后星形胶质细胞增殖的影响。将大鼠分为五组：身体丰富组（PE）、社交丰富组（SE）、身体和社交丰富组（PSE）、缺血+标准组（IS）和假手术+标准组（SS）。在一系列行为测试中，我们证明与标准组动物相比，丰富组动物的功能结局有所改善。仅在PSE组和PE组中观察到梗死体积减小。双重免疫荧光标记和蛋白质印迹分析显示，与SE组相比，PSE组和PE组大鼠梗死周围皮质中星形胶质细胞增殖明显更多，脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）表达水平更高。星形胶质细胞增殖和BDNF表达与功能结局显著相关。总体而言，本研究表明，就对星形胶质细胞增殖和BDNF表达的影响而言，身体活动是EE的一个更重要组成部分，这可能有助于改善中风动物的神经功能。
