title: Binge alcohol alters exercise-driven neuroplasticity.
abstract: Exercise is increasingly being used as a treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUD), but the interactive effects of alcohol and exercise on the brain remain largely unexplored. Alcohol damages the brain, in part by altering glial functioning. In contrast, exercise promotes glial health and plasticity. In the present study, we investigated whether binge alcohol would attenuate the effects of subsequent exercise on glia. We focused on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an alcohol-vulnerable region that also undergoes neuroplastic changes in response to exercise. Adult female Long-Evans rats were gavaged with ethanol (25% w/v) every 8h for 4days. Control animals received an isocaloric, non-alcohol diet. After 7days of abstinence, rats remained sedentary or exercised for 4weeks. Immunofluorescence was then used to label microglia, astrocytes, and neurons in serial tissue sections through the mPFC. Confocal microscope images were processed using FARSIGHT, a computational image analysis toolkit capable of automated analysis of cell number and morphology. We found that exercise increased the number of microglia in the mPFC in control animals. Binged animals that exercised, however, had significantly fewer microglia. Furthermore, computational arbor analytics revealed that the binged animals (regardless of exercise) had microglia with thicker, shorter arbors and significantly less branching, suggestive of partial activation. We found no changes in the number or morphology of mPFC astrocytes. We conclude that binge alcohol exerts a prolonged effect on morphology of mPFC microglia and limits the capacity of exercise to increase their numbers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204-5022, United States. Electronic address: eabarton3@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Emily A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, N308 Engineering Building 1, Houston, TX 77004-4005, United States. Electronic address: ylv@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Yanbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, N308 Engineering Building 1, Houston, TX 77004-4005, United States. Electronic address: mmmegjhani@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Murad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Megjhani
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204-5022, United States. Electronic address: mmaynard@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Maynard
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, N308 Engineering Building 1, Houston, TX 77004-4005, United States. Electronic address: prathameshkulkarni@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Prathamesh M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, N308 Engineering Building 1, Houston, TX 77004-4005, United States. Electronic address: broysam@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Badrinath
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Roysam
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204-5022, United States; Department of Biology & Biochemistry, 3455 Cullen Boulevard, Room 342, Houston, TX 77204-5001, United States. Electronic address: jlleasure@uh.edu.
authors.forename: J Leigh
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Leasure
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D057205:Automation, Laboratory; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002452:Cell Count; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000633:toxicity; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D017628:Microglia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D057185:Sedentary Behavior
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: binge alcohol consumption; exercise; medial prefrontal cortex; microglia