title: Are neuronal markers and neocortical graft-host interface influenced by housing conditions in rats with cortical infarct cavity?
abstract: The aim was to study if exposure to an enriched environment influenced graft-host interface and neuronal markers in neocortical grafts implanted in cortical infarct cavities 3 weeks after distal ligation of the middle cerebral artery in adult hypertensive rats. Half the rats were exposed to an enriched environment for 2 h daily 5 days a week starting 1 week after the arterial ligation. The brain was fixed by perfusion 4 weeks postgrafting. The immunoreactivity to glial fibrillary acidic protein, microtubule associated protein 2, and synaptophysin was studied in coronal paraffin-embedded sections. A distinct glial border separated the infarct cavity from the surrounding brain in sham-transplanted rats. Most grafts filled the larger part of the infarct cavity. In 8 of 18 transplants, 4 in each experimental group, part of the transplants protruded through the thin glial membrane that delineated the transplant-host interface into the adjacent host brain tissue. Microtubule associated protein 2 immunostained sections indicated bridging of dendrites in the host-transplant interface. Synaptophysin immunoreactivity was significantly higher in grafts than in contralateral cortex. However, graft morphology and neuronal marker immunoreactivity did not differ between rats housed in standard and activity stimulating cages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Lund University Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nordborg
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mattsson
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Johansson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000378:metabolism; D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000378:metabolism*; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019579:Neocortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D012931:Social Environment; D016708:Synaptophysin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D016708:Synaptophysin