Effect of enriched environment and predictable chronic stress on spatial memory in adolescent rats: predominant expression of BDNF, nNOS, and interestingly malondialdehyde in the right hippocampus.

Effect of enriched environment and predictable chronic stress on spatial memory in adolescent rats: predominant expression of BDNF, nNOS, and interestingly malondialdehyde in the right hippocampus. Brain Res. 2019 Jul 09;:146326 Authors: Kaptan Z, Dar KA, Kapucu A, Bulut H, Üzüm G Abstract Little is known about the mechanisms that promote divergence of function between left and right in the hippocampus, which is most affected by external factors and critical for spatial memory. We investigated the levels of memory-related mediators in the left and right hippocampus and spatial memory in rats exposed to predictable chronic stress (PCS) and an enriched environment (EE) during adolescence. Twenty-eight-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control (standard cages), PCS (15 minutes/day immobilization stress for four weeks), and EE (one hour/day environmentally enriched cages for four weeks) groups. After the applications, spatial memory was tested with the Morris water maze, and the serum levels of corticosterone were evaluated. The levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), which are critical for synaptic plasticity; malondialdehyde (MDA; lipid-peroxidation indicator); protein carbonyl (protein-oxidation indicator); and superoxide dismutase (antioxidant enzyme) were evaluated in the left and right hippocampus. Corticosterone levels in both the PCS and EE groups did not change ...
Source: Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Source Type: research