Housing environment and sex affect behavioral recovery from ischemic brain damage.
In previous work from our laboratory, we have developed a model of stroke that allows the comparison of stroke injury across age groups (10-day old, 63-day old, 180-day old rats). In this current study, we incorporated environmental enrichment to determine whether this form of rehabilitation alters behavioral recovery, and whether age and/or sex interacts with enrichment. Our results indicated that ischemic male rats that were housed in standard cages (shoebox housed) performed the poorest on two tasks of motor ability, and that this performance was related to the size of the lesion. With the exception of lesion size, in which 10-day old enriched rats had significantly smaller lesions than either the enriched 63-day old rats or the 180-day old rats, we observed no significant effects of age on behavioral recovery. Thus, our results are consistent with the observation that male rats may be more vulnerable to stroke and that they may differentially benefit from enrichment.
Saucier
Deborah M
DM
Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada, T1K 3M4. Deborah.saucier@uleth.ca
Yager
Jerome Y
JY
Armstrong
Edward A
EA
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000473:pathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012737:Sex Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D020521:Stroke / Q000473:pathology; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation