title: Environmental enrichment brings a beneficial effect on beam walking and enhances the migration of doublecortin-positive cells following striatal lesions in rats.
abstract: Rats raised in an enriched environment (enriched rats) have been reported to show less motor dysfunction following brain lesions, but the neuronal correlates of this improvement have not been well clarified. The present study aimed to elucidate the effect of chemical brain lesions and environmental enrichment on motor function and lesion-induced neurogenesis. Three week-old, recently weaned rats were divided into two groups: one group was raised in an enriched environment and the other group was raised in a standard cage for 5 weeks. Striatal damage was induced at an age of 8 weeks by injection of the neuro-toxins 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) or quinolinic acid (QA) into the striatum, or by injection of 6-OHDA into the substantia nigra (SN), which depleted nigrostriatal dopaminergic innervation. Enriched rats showed better performance on beam walking compared with those raised in standard conditions, but both groups showed similar forelimb use asymmetry in a cylinder test. The number of bromodeoxyuridine-labeled proliferating cells in the subventricular zone was increased by a severe striatal lesion induced by QA injection 1 week after the lesion, but decreased by injection of 6-OHDA into the SN. Following induction of lesions by striatal injection of 6-OHDA or QA, the number of cells positive for doublecortin (DCX) was strongly increased in the striatum; however, there was no change in the number of DCX-positive cells following 6-OHDA injection into the SN. Environmental enrichment enhanced the increase of DCX-positive cells with migrating morphology in the dorsal striatum. In enriched rats, DCX-positive cells traversed the striatal parenchyma far from the corpus callosum and lateral ventricle. DCX-positive cells co-expressed an immature neuronal marker, polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule, but were negative for a glial marker. These data suggest that environmental enrichment improves motor performance on beam walking and enhances neuronal migration toward a lesion area in the striatum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology and Brain Science, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Urakawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Misumi
authors.forename: T-S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D000089622:Doublecortin Domain Proteins; D000089662:Doublecortin Protein; D004777:Environment; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D039842:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1 / Q000378:metabolism; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology; D016627:Oxidopamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D017378:Quinolinic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D012794:Sialic Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: C000714848:Dcx protein, rat; D000089622:Doublecortin Domain Proteins; D000089662:Doublecortin Protein; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D039842:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1; D009479:Neuropeptides; D009498:Neurotoxins; D012794:Sialic Acids; C103469:polysialyl neural cell adhesion molecule; D016627:Oxidopamine; D017378:Quinolinic Acid