RNA-Sequencing Reveals Unique Transcriptional Signatures of Running and Running-Independent Environmental Enrichment in the Adult Mouse Dentate Gyrus.

ABSTRACT: Environmental enrichment (EE) is a powerful stimulus of brain plasticity and is among the most accessible treatment options for brain disease. In rodents, EE is modeled using multi-factorial environments that include running, social interactions, and/or complex surroundings. Here, we show that running and running-independent EE differentially affect the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), a brain region critical for learning and memory. Outbred male CD1 mice housed individually with a voluntary running disk showed improved spatial memory in the radial arm maze compared to individually- or socially-housed mice with a locked disk. We therefore used RNA sequencing to perform an unbiased interrogation of DG gene expression in mice exposed to either a voluntary running disk (RUN), a locked disk (LD

SUBMITTER: Gregoire CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5908890 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature