Early exercise induces long-lasting morphological changes in cortical and hippocampal neurons throughout of a sedentary period of rats

Life experiences at early ages, such as physical activity in childhood and adolescence, can result in long-lasting brain effects able to reduce future risk of brain disorders and to enhance lifelong brain functions. However, how early physical exercise promotes these effects remains unclear. A possi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2019-09, Vol.9 (1), p.13684-11, Article 13684
Main Authors: Serra, Fernando Tadeu, Carvalho, Andrea Dominguez, Araujo, Bruno Henrique Silva, Torres, Laila Brito, Cardoso, Fabrizio Dos Santos, Henrique, Jéssica Salles, Placencia, Eduardo Varejão Díaz, Lent, Roberto, Gomez-Pinilla, Fernando, Arida, Ricardo Mario, Gomes da Silva, Sérgio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Adrenocorticotropic Hormone - metabolism
AKT protein
Animals
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - metabolism
Cell proliferation
Cell Shape - physiology
Cerebral cortex
Cerebral Cortex - cytology
Cerebral Cortex - metabolism
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Children
Corticosterone - metabolism
Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein
Cytology
Dendrites - physiology
Dendritic branching
Exercise
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - cytology
Hippocampus - metabolism
Hippocampus - physiology
Hypotheses
Male
Morphology
Neuronal Plasticity - physiology
Neurons - cytology
Neurons - metabolism
Neurons - physiology
Neurotrophic factors
Physical activity
Physical Conditioning, Animal - physiology
Physical fitness
Physical training
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Rodents
Sedentary behavior
TOR protein
TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - metabolism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Life experiences at early ages, such as physical activity in childhood and adolescence, can result in long-lasting brain effects able to reduce future risk of brain disorders and to enhance lifelong brain functions. However, how early physical exercise promotes these effects remains unclear. A possible hypothesis is that physical exercise increases the expression of neurotrophic factors and stimulates neuronal growth, resulting in a neural reserve to be used at later ages. Basing our study on this hypothesis, we evaluated the absolute number and morphology of neuronal cells, as well as the expression of growth, proliferation and survival proteins (BDNF, Akt, mTOR, p70S6K, ERK and CREB) in the cerebral cortex and hippocampal formation throughout of a sedentary period of rats who were physically active during youth. To do this, male Wistar rats were submitted to an aerobic exercise protocol from the 21 to the 60 postnatal days (P21-P60), and evaluated at 0 (P60), 30 (P90) and 60 (P120) days after the last exercise session. Results showed that juvenile exercise increased, and maintained elevated, the number of cortical and hippocampal neuronal cells and dendritic arborization, when evaluated at the above post-exercise ages. Hippocampal BDNF levels and cortical mTOR expression were found to be increased at P60, but were restored to control levels at P90 and P120. Overall, these findings indicate that, despite the short-term effects on growth and survival proteins, early exercise induces long-lasting morphological changes in cortical and hippocampal neurons even during a sedentary period of rats.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-50218-9