title: Astrocytic plasticity as a possible mediator of the cognitive improvements after environmental enrichment in aged rats.
abstract: Currently, little is known about the effect of environmental enrichment (EE) on astrocytic plasticity, especially during aging. Given the newly discovered role of the astrocytes in regulating the synaptic transmission and thereby, the cognitive functions, we aimed to study the impact of EE on the performance in a spatial memory task and on the number and morphology of GFAP immunopositive cells in the dorsal hippocampus. After two months of EE (3 h/per day), the animals were tested in the Radial-Arm Water Maze (RAWM) for four days, with six daily trials. Next, we analyzed the changes in the GFAP immunopositive cells in CA1, CA3 and Dentate Gyrus (DG). Behavioral results showed that, even in advanced ages, EE improved the performance in a spatial memory task. Also, we found that aged rats submitted to EE had more GFAP immunopositive cells in the DG and more complex astrocytes, revealed by Sholl analysis, in all hippocampal subfields with respect to the other experimental conditions. Interestingly, the learning of a spatial memory task produced more morphological complexity and higher levels of GFAP immunopositive cells with regard to a standard control group, but not at the same level of the enriched groups. Thus, it is possible that the plastic changes found in the hippocampal astrocytes after EE are involved in a brain reserve to cope with age-related cognitive impairments.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Oviedo, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, INEUROPA, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain. Electronic address: uo179677@uniovi.es.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sampedro-Piquero
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University "Sapienza", via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy; IRCCS S. Lucia Foundation, via del Fosso di Fiorano 64, 00143 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: paola.debartolo@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Bartolo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University "Sapienza", via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy; IRCCS S. Lucia Foundation, via del Fosso di Fiorano 64, 00143 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: laura.petrosini@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrosini
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Oviedo, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, INEUROPA, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain. Electronic address: zancadaclara.uo@uniovi.es.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zancada-Menendez
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Oviedo, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, INEUROPA, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain. Electronic address: jarias@uniovi.es.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Oviedo, Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias, INEUROPA, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Spain. Electronic address: begega@uniovi.es.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Begega
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D006799:Housing, Animal; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
keywords: Aging; Astrocyte; Environmental enrichment; GFAP; Spatial memory