Dataset Information

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 depressive phenotypes, inhibition of neuroinflammation and neuronal apoptosis, and improvement in synaptic plasticity in maternal rats. Thus, EE effectively alleviates neuroinflammation, neuronal apoptosis, damage to synaptic plasticity, and consequent depression-like behavior in mother rats experiencing MS-induced PPD, paving the way for new preventive and therapeutic strategies for PPD.

SUBMITTER: Chen G

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

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

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

Chen Guopeng G Zhang Yuhui Y Li Ruiling R Jin Liuyin L Hao Keke K Rong Jingtong J Duan Hao H Du Yiwei Y Yao Lihua L Xiang Dan D Liu Zhongchun Z

Neurobiology of stress 20240311

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 be ...[more]

PMID: 38524250

Similar Datasets

Project description:MicroRNAs (miRs) are reported to serve key roles in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). miR‑1 has been found in cardiovascular diseases. The present study aimed to determine whether the knockdown of miR‑1 could inhibit right ventricle (RV) remodeling and thereby control PAH in model rats. PAH model rats were established by exposing rats to hypoxia, while cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) obtained from PAH model rats were treated with hypoxia to establish an in vitro model, and RV remodeling was evaluated by Masson staining and the levels of collagen I, collagen III, α‑smooth muscle actin (α‑SMA) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) evaluated by western blotting or reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR. The results revealed that the expression levels of miR‑1 were upregulated in the RV of PAH model rats induced with hypoxia and in the CFs treated with hypoxia. The mean pulmonary arterial pressure, RV systolic pressure, RV/(left ventricle + interventricular septum) and RV/tibia length were increased in PAH rats; however, the increases in all parameters were subsequently reversed by transfection with a miR‑1 antagomiR in PAH model rats. The transfection with the miR‑1 antagomiR inhibited the development of RV fibrosis and downregulated the mRNA expression levels of collagen I, collagen III, α‑SMA and CTGF in the RV tissue of PAH model rats. The upregulation of collagen I, collagen III, α‑SMA and CTGF expression levels in hypoxia‑treated CFs was also subsequently reversed by miR‑1 antagomiR transfection. The expression levels of collagen I, collagen III, α‑SMA and CTGF were also upregulated in the CFs obtained from PAH model rats, and these increases were attenuated by miR‑1 antagomiR transfection. The expression levels of phosphorylated (p)‑PI3K and p‑AKT were also upregulated in hypoxia‑treated CFs, and these increases were also inhibited by transfection with miR‑1 antagomiR. In conclusion, these results indicated that inhibiting miR‑1 may attenuate RV hypertrophy and fibrosis in PAH model rats, a mechanism that may involve the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Project description:UnlabelledMicroglial dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Environmental enrichment (EE) is well documented to enhance neuronal form and function, but almost nothing is known about whether and how it alters the brain's innate immune system. Here we found that prolonged exposure of naive wild-type mice to EE significantly altered microglial density and branching complexity in the dentate gyrus of hippocampus. In wild-type mice injected intraventricularly with soluble Aβ oligomers (oAβ) from hAPP-expressing cultured cells, EE prevented several morphological features of microglial inflammation and consistently prevented oAβ-mediated mRNA changes in multiple inflammatory genes both in vivo and in primary microglia cultured from the mice. Microdialysis in behaving mice confirmed that EE normalized increases in the extracellular levels of the key cytokines (CCL3, CCL4, TNFα) identified by the mRNA analysis. Moreover, EE prevented the changes in microglial gene expression caused by ventricular injection of oAβ extracted directly from AD cerebral cortex. We conclude that EE potently alters the form and function of microglia in a way that prevents their inflammatory response to human oAβ, suggesting that prolonged environmental enrichment could protect against AD by modulating the brain's innate immune system.Significance statementEnvironmental enrichment (EE) is a potential therapy to delay Alzheimer's disease (AD). Microglial inflammation is associated with the progression of AD, but the influence of EE on microglial inflammation is unclear. Here we systematically applied in vivo methods to show that EE alters microglia in the dentate gyrus under physiological conditions and robustly prevents microglial inflammation induced by human Aβ oligomers, as shown by neutralized microglial inflammatory morphology, mRNA changes, and brain interstitial fluid cytokine levels. Our findings suggest that EE alters the innate immune system and could serve as a therapeutic approach to AD and provide new targets for drug discovery. Further, we propose that the therapeutic benefits of EE could extend to other neurodegenerative diseases involving microglial inflammation.

Dataset Information

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

Publications

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

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets