Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The China-Japan Friendship Hospital, 100029 Beijing, China.
J Integr Neurosci. 2022 Nov 29;22(1):5. doi: 10.31083/j.jin2201005.
One of the most serious complications of sepsis is sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE), which impairs the cognition ability of survivors. Environmental enrichment (EE) has been demonstrated to alleviate cognition deficits under many kinds of brain injury conditions. However, EE's effects on SAE remain unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to determine EE's effect on cognition disorders under SAE conditions and the underlying mechanism.
Adult male rats, subject to SAE or not, were housed under a standard environment (SE) or EE for 30 days. Subsequently, the rats were subjected to cognitive tests, such as the novel object recognition (NOR) test, the Morris water maze (MWM) test, an Open Field (OF) test, the elevated plus maze (EPM) test, and a sensory neglect (SN) test. Neuroinflammation, apoptosis, and oxidative stress changes in the brain were also detected.
The results revealed that SAE impaired somatesthesia, recognition memory, spatial learning and memory, and exploratory activity, which were significantly improved by EE housing. EE also prevented SAE-induced anxiety-like behavior. In addition, EE housing capable induced a decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines, and an increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines and antioxidant properties in the brain. Moreover, EE housing exerted an anti-apoptosis function by upregulating the level of B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 (Bcl-2) level and downregulating the level of p53 level in the hippocampus.
The results of the present study indicated that EE exerts a neuroprotective function on cognitive ability in SAE rats. The effect is achieved by increasing antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic capacities. EE can effectively rescue SAE-induced cognitive deficits.
脓毒症最严重的并发症之一是脓毒症相关性脑病（SAE），它会损害幸存者的认知能力。环境丰富（EE）已被证明可在多种脑损伤情况下减轻认知缺陷。但是，EE 对 SAE 的影响尚不清楚。因此，本研究旨在确定 EE 在 SAE 条件下对认知障碍的影响及其潜在机制。
成年雄性大鼠，有无 SAE，分别置于标准环境（SE）或 EE 中 30 天。随后，对大鼠进行认知测试，如新颖物体识别（NOR）测试、莫里斯水迷宫（MWM）测试、旷场（OF）测试、高架十字迷宫（EPM）测试和感觉忽视（SN）测试。还检测了大脑中的神经炎症、细胞凋亡和氧化应激变化。
结果表明，SAE 损害了感觉、识别记忆、空间学习和记忆以及探索活动，而 EE 住房明显改善了这些情况。EE 住房还可预防 SAE 引起的焦虑样行为。此外，EE 住房能够降低大脑中的促炎细胞因子水平，并增加抗炎细胞因子和抗氧化特性。此外，EE 住房通过上调海马体中 B 细胞淋巴瘤/白血病-2（Bcl-2）水平和下调 p53 水平发挥抗凋亡作用。
本研究结果表明，EE 对 SAE 大鼠的认知能力具有神经保护作用。这种作用是通过增加抗氧化剂、抗炎和抗凋亡能力来实现的。EE 可有效挽救 SAE 引起的认知缺陷。
