Artigo Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

Environmental impoverishment and aging alter object recognition, spatial learning, and dentate gyrus astrocytes

2010; Wiley; Volume: 32; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07296.x

ISSN

1460-9568

Autores

Daniel Guerreiro Diniz, César Augusto Raiol Fôro, Carla M Damasceno Rego, David A. Gloria, Fabio R. R. De Oliveira, Juliana M. P. Paes, Aline Andrade de Sousa, Tatyana Pereira Tokuhashi, Lucas Siqueira Trindade, M. Turiel, Erick G. R. Vasconcelos, João Bento‐Torres, Colm Cunnigham, V. Hugh Perry, Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço Diniz,

Tópico(s)

Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms

Resumo

Abstract Environmental and age‐related effects on learning and memory were analysed and compared with changes observed in astrocyte laminar distribution in the dentate gyrus. Aged (20 months) and young (6 months) adult female albino Swiss mice were housed from weaning either in impoverished conditions or in enriched conditions, and tested for episodic‐like and water maze spatial memories. After these behavioral tests, brain hippocampal sections were immunolabeled for glial fibrillary acid protein to identify astrocytes. The effects of environmental enrichment on episodic‐like memory were not dependent on age, and may protect water maze spatial learning and memory from declines induced by aging or impoverished environment. In the dentate gyrus, the number of astrocytes increased with both aging and enriched environment in the molecular layer, increased only with aging in the polymorphic layer, and was unchanged in the granular layer. We suggest that long‐term experience‐induced glial plasticity by enriched environment may represent at least part of the circuitry groundwork for improvements in behavioral performance in the aged mice brain.

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