Environmental enrichment changes the effects of prenatal and postnatal undernutrition on memory, anxiety traits, Bdnf and TrkB expression in the hippocampus of male adult rats

Environmental factors such as undernutrition and environmental enrichment can promote changes in the molecular and behavioural mechanisms related to cognition. Herein, we investigated the effect of enriched environment stimulation in rats that were malnourished in the pre- and postnatal periods on c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural brain research 2024-03, Vol.460, p.114817, Article 114817
Main Authors: Lima, Odair José Farias, Ribeiro, Juliana da Silva, Vasconcelos, Jefferson Diego Costa, Ferraz, Marília Freire Isidro, Silva, Caroline Emiliane de Melo Tavares da Rosa e, Barros, Waleska Maria Almeida, Vieira, Gilberto Ramos, David, Mírian Celly Medeiros Miranda, Matos, Rhowena Jane Barbosa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Bdfn
Enriched environment
Memory
Perinatal undernutrition
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Environmental factors such as undernutrition and environmental enrichment can promote changes in the molecular and behavioural mechanisms related to cognition. Herein, we investigated the effect of enriched environment stimulation in rats that were malnourished in the pre- and postnatal periods on changes in the gene expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and its receptor in the hippocampus, as well as on anxiety traits and memory. Early undernutrition promoted weight reduction, increased the risk analysis, reduced permanence in the open arm of the elevated plus-maze and induced a reduction in the gene expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and tropomyosin receptor kinase B. However, exposure to an enriched environment from 30 to 90 days’ old maintained the malnourished phenotype, leading to weight reduction in the control group. In addition, the enriched environment did not alter the risk assessment in the undernourished group, but it did increase the frequency of labyrinth entries. Sixty-day exposure to the enriched environment resulted in a reversal in the gene expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and tropomyosin receptor kinase B in the hippocampus of malnourished rats and favoured of long-term memory in the object recognition test in the open-field. These results suggest that an enriched environment may have a protective effect in adult life by inducing changes in long-term memory and anxiety traits in animals that were undernourished in early life. Furthermore, reversing these effects of undernutrition involves mechanisms linked to the molecular signalling of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and tropomyosin receptor kinase B in the hippocampus. [Display omitted] •Exposure to enriched environment (EE) induced a weight reduction in the control group;•The EE minimised the anxiety present in the control and undernourished animals;•EE can induce changes in the hippocampus, as reflected in the recognition memory;•Undernutrition reduced the Bdnf and TrkB gene expression, but the EE reversed it.
ISSN:0166-4328
1872-7549
1872-7549
DOI:10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114817