Dandi Εvgenia, Theotokis Paschalis, Petri Maria Christina, Sideropoulou Vaia, Spandou Evangelia, Tata Despina A
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Laboratory of Experimental Neurology and Neuroimmunology, 2nd Department of Neurology, AHEPA University Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Dev Psychobiol. 2023 Nov;65(7):e22422. doi: 10.1002/dev.22422.
This study aims at investigating whether environmental enrichment (EE) initiated in adolescence can alter chronic unpredictable stress (CUS)-associated changes in astroglial and synaptic plasticity markers in male and female rats. To this end, we studied possible alterations in hippocampal glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and synaptophysin (SYN) in CUS rats previously housed in EE. Wistar rats on postnatal day (PND) 23 were housed for 10 weeks in standard housing (SH) or enriched conditions. On PND 66, animals were exposed to CUS for 4 weeks. SYN and GFAP expressions were evaluated in CA1 and CA3 subfields and dentate gyrus (DG). CUS reduced the expression of SYN in all hippocampal areas, whereas lower GFAP expression was evident only in CA1 and CA3. The reduced expression of SYN in DG and CA3 was evident to male SH/CUS rats, whereas the reduced GFAP expression in CA1 and CA3 was limited to SH/CUS females. EE housing increased the hippocampal expression of both markers and protected against CUS-associated decreases. Our findings indicate that the decreases in the expression of SYN and GFAP following CUS are region and sex-specific and underline the neuroprotective role of EE against these CUS-associated changes.
本研究旨在探究青春期开始的环境富集（EE）是否能改变雄性和雌性大鼠中与慢性不可预测应激（CUS）相关的星形胶质细胞和突触可塑性标志物的变化。为此，我们研究了先前饲养在EE环境中的CUS大鼠海马胶质纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）和突触素（SYN）的可能变化。出生后第23天（PND 23）的Wistar大鼠在标准饲养（SH）或富集条件下饲养10周。在PND 66时，动物接受4周的CUS处理。在海马CA1和CA3亚区以及齿状回（DG）中评估SYN和GFAP的表达。CUS降低了所有海马区域中SYN的表达，而仅在CA1和CA3中GFAP表达明显降低。DG和CA3中SYN表达的降低在雄性SH/CUS大鼠中明显，而CA1和CA3中GFAP表达的降低仅限于SH/CUS雌性大鼠。EE饲养增加了两种标志物在海马中的表达，并防止了与CUS相关的降低。我们的研究结果表明，CUS后SYN和GFAP表达的降低具有区域和性别特异性，并强调了EE对这些与CUS相关变化的神经保护作用。
