Behavioural and glial changes in old rats following environmental enrichment

Soffié, Monique; Hahn, Kirstin; Terao, E.; Eclancher, Françoise

doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(98)00139-9

Cited by 116 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In addition to the general effects of enrichment on spatial task performance, enrichment also significantly enhanced object recognition at the 48-hr delay in vehicle-treated aged females. Previous studies in aged rodents have also demonstrated enrichment-induced improvements in other non-spatial memory tasks such as incidental learning (Warren, Zerweck & Anthony, 1982) and temporal discrimination (Soffié et al, 1999).…”

Section: Aged Femalesmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Controls are group (social) or singly (isolated) housed and not exposed to enriching objects. Recent work has shown that enrichment improves hippocampal-dependent memory and enhances hippocampal morphology and plasticity in young-adult (Davis, Jones & Derrick, 2004;Duffy, Craddock & Nguyen, 2001;Kempermann, Kuhn & Gage, 1997;Rampon, Tang, Goodhouse, Shimizu, Kyin & Tsien, 2000), middle-aged (Frick, Stearns, Pan & Berger-Sweeney, 2003;Kempermann, Kuhn & Gage, 1998), and aged (Frick et al, 2002;Nakamura, Kobayashi, Ohashi & Ando, 1999;Soffié, Hahn, Terao & Eclancher, 1999;Winocur, 1998) rats and mice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life-long environmental enrichment differentially affects the mnemonic response to estrogen in young, middle-aged, and aged female mice

Gresack

Kerr

Frick

2007

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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The present study was designed to examine whether life-long exposure to standard or enriched housing affects the ability of estrogen to improve spatial and object memory throughout the lifespan. Three week-old female mice were maintained in standard or enriched housing up to and through ovariectomy and behavioral testing at 5, 17, or 22 months of age. Spatial memory was tested in the Morris water maze and object memory was tested using an object recognition task. Immediately after training each day, mice were injected intraperitoneally with vehicle or 0.2 mg/kg 17β-estradiol. Among young females, object recognition was enhanced by estradiol alone, an effect that was reduced by enrichment. In contrast, spatial water maze performance was impaired by estradiol alone, but improved by the combination of both estradiol and enrichment. At middle-age, object recognition was enhanced by estradiol or enrichment alone, and the combination of both treatments. Spatial memory in the water maze was also improved by both treatments at middle-age, but the beneficial effects of estradiol were limited to standard-housed females. Finally, whereas enrichment in aged females significantly enhanced performance in both tasks, estradiol had no effect at this age in either task. In total, the data indicate that life-long enrichment can significantly alter the extent to which estradiol affects memory in mice throughout the lifespan. Importantly, the interaction between these treatments is highly dependent on age and type of memory tested.

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Section: Aged Femalesmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life-long environmental enrichment differentially affects the mnemonic response to estrogen in young, middle-aged, and aged female mice

Gresack

Kerr

Frick

2007

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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“…Dendritic spine density is increased on pyramidal cells (Woolley et al, 1990), whereas astrocyte volume becomes lower in area CA1 of the hippocampus during proestrus, a time when estrogen levels peak during the reproductive cycle (Klintsova et al, 1995). Structural changes in spines and astrocytes have also been reported to take place after LTP induction (Wenzel et al, 1991;Segal, 2005), experimental models of epilepsy (Hawrylak et al, 1993;McKinney, 2005;Zha et al, 2005), and when rodents are reared in an enriched environment (Berman et al, 1996;Jones and Greenough, 1996;Soffie et al, 1999). Astrocytes also modulate synaptic efficacy of magnocellular neurons of the supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus by extending and retracting their processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperative Astrocyte and Dendritic Spine Dynamics at Hippocampal Excitatory Synapses

Haber¹,

Zhou²,

Murai³

2006

J. Neurosci.

370

349

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Accumulating evidence is redefining the importance of neuron-glial interactions at synapses in the CNS. Astrocytes form "tripartite" complexes with presynaptic and postsynaptic structures and regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity. Despite our understanding of the importance of neuron-glial relationships in physiological contexts, little is known about the structural interplay between astrocytes and synapses. In the past, this has been difficult to explore because studies have been hampered by the lack of a system that preserves complex neuron-glial relationships observed in the brain. Here we present a system that can be used to characterize the intricate relationship between astrocytic processes and synaptic structures in situ using organotypic hippocampal slices, a preparation that retains the three-dimensional architecture of astrocyte-synapse interactions. Using time-lapse confocal imaging, we demonstrate that astrocytes can rapidly extend and retract fine processes to engage and disengage from motile postsynaptic dendritic spines. Surprisingly, astrocytic motility is, on average, higher than its dendritic spine counterparts and likely relies on actin-based cytoskeletal reorganization. Changes in astrocytic processes are typically coordinated with changes in spines, and astrocyte-spine interactions are stabilized at larger spines. Our results suggest that dynamic structural changes in astrocytes help control the degree of neuron-glial communication at hippocampal synapses.

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“…Moreover, enrichment in aging rodents can provide similar benefits. In aged rats and mice, enrichment initiated at either weaning or during old age results in such neural alterations as increased cortical thickness, dendritic branching, RNA content, and presynaptic vesicle number (Warren et al 1982;Diamond et al 1985;Greenough et al 1986;Nakamura et al 1999), reduced aging-induced hippocampal gliosis (Soffié et al 1999), and increased cortical and hippocampal levels of the presynaptic protein synaptophysin (Saito et al 1994;Frick and Fernandez 2003). Furthermore, enrichment in aged rats and mice reverses deficits in memory and other behaviors (Warren et al 1982;Van Waas and Soffié 1996;Winocur 1998;Soffié et al 1999;Frick and Fernandez 2003).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Spatial Memory and Neurochemistry in Middle-Aged Mice

Frick¹,

Stearns²,

Pan³

et al. 2003

Learn. Mem.

148

100

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The present study compared the effects of environmental enrichment on spatial memory, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity, and synaptophysin levels in middle-aged male and female mice. Prior to testing, a subset of 18-month-old male and female C57BL/6 mice was housed with two to three toys and a running wheel in the home cage for up to 29 d. Adult mice (7 mo) of both sexes and the remaining middle-aged mice were group (social) housed, but not exposed to enriching objects. After the enrichment period, all mice were tested in a 1-day version of the Morris water maze, in which both spatial and nonspatial memory were assessed. Immediately after testing, the hippocampus and frontoparietal cortex were dissected, and GAD activity and synaptophysin levels were measured. Environmental enrichment reduced the age-related impairment in spatial acquisition and retention; relative to adult social controls, middle-aged enriched mice were unimpaired, whereas middle-aged social controls were impaired. This reduction was similar in middle-aged males and females. Enrichment did not affect cued memory in either sex. Although hippocampal GAD activity was increased by enrichment in males, all other neurochemical measurements were unaffected by enrichment or aging in either sex. These data suggest that environmental enrichment initiated at middle age can reduce age-related impairments in spatial memory in males and females, although the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect remain unknown.

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Behavioural and glial changes in old rats following environmental enrichment

Cited by 116 publications

References 49 publications

Life-long environmental enrichment differentially affects the mnemonic response to estrogen in young, middle-aged, and aged female mice

Life-long environmental enrichment differentially affects the mnemonic response to estrogen in young, middle-aged, and aged female mice

Cooperative Astrocyte and Dendritic Spine Dynamics at Hippocampal Excitatory Synapses

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Spatial Memory and Neurochemistry in Middle-Aged Mice

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