Abstract
Environmental enrichment is a widespread neuroprotective strategy during development and also in the mature nervous system. Several research groups have described that enriched environment in adult rats has an impact on the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aim of our present study was to examine the effects of early, postnatal environmental enrichment after 6-hydroxydopamine-induced (6-OHDA) lesion of the substantia nigra in adulthood. Newborn Wistar rats were divided into control and enriched groups according to their environmental conditions. For environmental enrichment, during the first five postnatal weeks animals were placed in larger cages and exposed to intensive complex stimuli. Dopaminergic cell loss, and hypokinetic and asymmetrical signs were evaluated after inducing PD with unilateral injections of 6-OHDA in three-month-old animals. Treatment with 6-OHDA led to a significant cell loss in the substantia nigra of control animals, however, postnatal enriched circumstances could rescue the dopaminergic cells. Although there was no significant difference in the percentage of surviving cells between 6-OHDA-treated control and enriched groups, the slightly less dopaminergic cell loss in the enriched group compared to control animals resulted in less severe hypokinesia. Our investigation is the first to provide evidence for the neuroprotective effect of postnatal enriched environment in PD later in life.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system
In case of animals kept in standard environment treated with 6-OHDA the total number of free rearings was significantly reduced on the 10th postoperative day when compared to preoperative data
In three-month-old animals after inducing PD we evaluated the dopaminergic cell loss and motor signs
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. The cause of the disease is still unknown, remarkable progress has been made to understand the underlying mechanisms [3] Several genes, such as α-synuclein, parkin, PINK1 (phosphatase and tensin homologue-induced kinase 1), DJ1 ( known as Parkinson disease protein 7, PARK7 gene); and environmental factors, like physical trauma, infections, and toxic effects have been identified to have a role in PD [4,5]. It is characterized by the death of the dopamin-producing (DAergic) neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta [6] and the accumulation of Lewy bodies, the intracytoplasmic α-synuclein inclusions in the surviving neurons [7,8]. Physical exercise and sport in younger ages appear to be protective later [17,18,19]
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