Tactile stimulation and maternal separation prevent hippocampal damage in rats submitted to neonatal hypoxia-ischemia.
Unilateral neonatal hypoxia-ischemia causes important damage to the hippocampus of the hemisphere ipsilateral to carotid artery occlusion; two forms of neonatal handling, tactile stimulation and maternal separation for a short period, have been shown to produce functional/behavioral protection in distinct models of CNS challenge. In this paper we investigated whether neonatal handling could alter the hippocampal damage caused by neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI) in the Wistar rat. Pups at postnatal day 7, P7, received HI (8% O(2)-92% N(2)) for 90 min and were submitted to neonatal handling, tactile stimulation of maternal separation daily, from P8 to P21, for 10 min. On adulthood, hippocampal volume was analyzed by stereological techniques, along with measures of cortical thickness and hemispheric area at the level -3.30 mm from bregma. HI caused a reduction of volume of whole hippocampus, of Amon's horn and of dentate gyrus, with no effect on cortical and hemispheric measures; neonatal handling prevented such effect. This is the first report showing that both tactile stimulation and neonatal handling exert a morphological neuroprotective action for HI-induced damage to the hippocampus.
Rodrigues
Analú L
AL
Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Basic Health Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS, Rua Ramiro Barcelos 2600, Anexo 90035-003, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Arteni
Nice S
NS
Abel
Cristiano
C
Zylbersztejn
Daniel
D
Chazan
Rodrigo
R
Viola
Giordano
G
Xavier
Leder
L
Achaval
Matilde
M
Netto
Carlos Alexandre
CA
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D020925:Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*