Environmental enrichment attenuates depressive-like behavior in maternal rats by inhibiting neuroinflammation and apoptosis and promoting neuroplasticity.

ABSTRACT: Gestational stress can exacerbate postpartum depression (PPD), for which treatment options remain limited. Environmental enrichment (EE) may be a therapeutic intervention for neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, but the specific mechanisms by which EE might impact PPD remain unknown. Here we examined the behavioral, molecular, and cellular impact of EE in a stable PPD model in rats developed through maternal separation (MS). Maternal rats subjected to MS developed depression-like behavior and cognitive dysfunction together with evidence of significant neuroinflammation including microglia activation, neuronal apoptosis, and impaired synaptic plasticity. Expanding the duration of EE to throughout pregnancy and lactation, we observed an EE-associated reversal of MS-induced depre

SUBMITTER: Chen G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10958482 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature