Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2022;40(2):109-124. doi: 10.3233/RNN-211216.
In recent years, much effort has been focused on developing new strategies for the prevention and mitigation of adverse radiation effects on healthy tissues and organs, including the brain. The brain is very sensitive to radiation effects, albeit as it is highly plastic. Hence, deleterious radiation effects may be potentially reversible. Because radiation exposure affects dendritic space, reduces the brain's ability to produce new neurons, and alters behavior, mitigation efforts should focus on restoring these parameters. To that effect, environmental enrichment through complex housing (CH) and exercise may provide a plausible avenue for exploration of protection from brain irradiation. CH is a much broader concept than exercise alone, and constitutes exposure of animals to positive physical and social stimulation that is superior to their routine housing and care conditions. We hypothesized that CHs may lessen harmful neuroanatomical and behavioural effects of low dose radiation exposure.
We analyzed and compared cerebral morphology in animals exposed to low dose head, bystander (liver), and scatter irradiation on rats housed in either the environmental enrichment condos or standard housing.
Enriched condo conditions ameliorated radiation-induced neuroanatomical changes. Moreover, irradiated animals that were kept in enriched CH condos displayed fewer radiation-induced behavioural deficits than those housed in standard conditions.
Animal model-based environmental enrichment strategies, such as CH, are excellent surrogate models for occupational and exercise therapy in humans, and consequently have significant translational possibility. Our study may thus serve as a roadmap for the development of new, easy, safe and cost-effective methods to prevent and mitigate low-dose radiation effects on the brain.
近年来，人们致力于开发新策略以预防和减轻健康组织和器官（包括大脑）的辐射不良反应。大脑对辐射效应非常敏感，尽管它具有高度的可塑性。因此，有害的辐射效应可能是潜在可逆的。由于辐射暴露会影响树突空间，降低大脑产生新神经元的能力，并改变行为，因此缓解措施应集中在恢复这些参数上。为此，通过复杂的环境丰容（CH）和运动来丰富环境可能为探索保护大脑免受辐射提供一种可行的途径。CH 是一个比运动本身更广泛的概念，它使动物接触到优于其常规生活和护理条件的积极的物理和社会刺激。我们假设 CH 可以减轻低剂量辐射暴露对神经解剖和行为的有害影响。
我们分析和比较了暴露于头部、旁观者（肝脏）和散射辐射下的大鼠的大脑形态，这些大鼠分别被安置在环境丰富的公寓或标准笼中。
丰富的 CH 条件改善了辐射引起的神经解剖变化。此外，与安置在标准条件下的大鼠相比，在丰富的 CH 公寓中饲养的辐射动物表现出较少的辐射引起的行为缺陷。
基于动物模型的环境丰富策略，如 CH，是人类职业和运动疗法的极好替代模型，因此具有重要的转化可能性。因此，我们的研究可以为开发新的、简单、安全和具有成本效益的方法来预防和减轻大脑的低剂量辐射效应提供一个路线图。
