Department of Anesthesia and Trauma Research, Hebei Province Cangzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine, Cangzhou, China.
Department of Anesthesiology, Hebei Province Cangzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine, Cangzhou, China.
Behav Brain Res. 2023 Mar 28;442:114328. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114328. Epub 2023 Feb 4.
Cognitive impairment, which includes perioperative psychological distress and cognitive dysfunction, can be determined by preoperative and post-operative neuropsychological tests. Several mechanisms have been proposed regarding the two-way communication between the immune system and the brain after surgery. We aimed to understand the mechanisms underlying perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PND) in elderly rats using an experimental abdominal surgery model.
24-month-old SD rats were exposed to the abdominal surgery model (AEL) under 3% anesthesia. On day 15 and day 30 post-surgery, fractional anisotropy (FA) using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) was measured. From day 25 to day 30 post-surgery, behavioral tests, including open field test (OFT), Morris water maze (MWM), novel object recognition (NOR), force swimming test (FST), and elevated plus maze (EPM), were performed. Then, the rats were euthanized to perform pathological analysis and western blot measurement.
The rats exposed to AEL surgical treatment demonstrated significantly decreased time crossing the platform in the MWM, decreased recognition index in the NOR, reduced time in the open arm in the EPM, increased immobility time in the FST, and increased number of crossings in the OFT. Aged rats, after AEL exposure, further demonstrated decreased FA in the mPFC, nucleus accumbens (NAc), and hippocampus, together with reduced MAP2 intensity, attenuation of GAD65, VGlut2, CHAT, and phosphorylated P38MAPK expression, and increased reactive astrocytes and microglia.
In this study, the aged rats exposed to abdominal surgery demonstrated both emotional changes and cognitive dysfunction, which may be associated with neuronal degeneration and reduced phosphorylated P38MAPK.
认知障碍包括围手术期心理困扰和认知功能障碍，可以通过术前和术后神经心理学测试来确定。手术后，免疫系统和大脑之间存在双向交流，有几种机制已经被提出。我们旨在使用实验性腹部手术模型来了解老年大鼠围手术期神经认知障碍（PND）的发病机制。
24 月龄 SD 大鼠在 3%麻醉下接受腹部手术模型（AEL）。术后第 15 天和第 30 天，使用扩散峰度成像（DKI）测量分数各向异性（FA）。术后第 25 天至第 30 天，进行行为测试，包括旷场测试（OFT）、Morris 水迷宫（MWM）、新物体识别（NOR）、强迫游泳测试（FST）和高架十字迷宫（EPM）。然后，处死大鼠进行病理分析和 Western blot 测量。
接受 AEL 手术治疗的大鼠在 MWM 中穿越平台的时间明显减少，NOR 中的识别指数减少，EPM 中开放臂的时间减少，FST 中的不动时间增加，OFT 中的穿越次数增加。AEL 暴露后的老年大鼠，mPFC、伏隔核（NAc）和海马中的 FA 进一步降低，MAP2 强度降低，GAD65、VGlut2、CHAT 和磷酸化 P38MAPK 表达减弱，反应性星形胶质细胞和小胶质细胞增多。
本研究中，接受腹部手术的老年大鼠表现出情绪变化和认知功能障碍，这可能与神经元变性和磷酸化 P38MAPK 减少有关。
