Abstract
Environment enrichment (EE) promotes morphological changes in astrocytes and gliogenesis, as well an increment in the synapses number of hippocampus. In addition, exposure to EE is known to increase the astrocytic number and volume in cortical regions. The glutamine synthetase (GS) is an astrocyte enzyme that converts glutamate into glutamine, which play an important role in the glutamate/glutamine cycle. Here, we hypothesized that the GS activity would be increased in the cortex and hippocampus of mice living in EE. For this, mice were assigned randomly in two housing conditions: standard condition (SC) or enriched environment (EE) and the GS activity was evaluated after 9 weeks. Our results showed that EE did not promote any significant change in GS activity in both regions tested. Future studies must focus on the temporal analyses of GS activity after EE conditions as well in other species and/or strains and during distinct age of life in order to understand the factors affecting the GS activity after exposition to EE conditions.
Highlights
Environmental enrichment (EE) is a form of manipulation in which captive animals are exposed to complex conditions through alterations in the physical and social environment [1]
Considering it, in the present study we tested the hypothesis that glutamine synthetase (GS) activity improvedin hippocampus and cortex of animals living under EE conditions
Considering the pivotal role of glutamatergic transmission in neural plasticity and the improvement in dendritic complexity [7], synaptogenesis [12], complexity of astrocyte morphology [9] and in gliogenesis [11], we would expect that GS activity might be improved in hippocampus of mice exposed to EE conditions when compared with mice living in control conditions
Summary
Environmental enrichment (EE) is a form of manipulation in which captive animals are exposed to complex conditions through alterations in the physical and social environment [1]. It has been demonstrated that mice exposed to short periods under EE conditions promote improvement in the glutamartergic pathways in the cortex. Mice subject to 40 days of EE present an increase in the levels of GluR2 and GluR4 (AMPA subunits) in the hippocampus [17] In this way, a short period of EE promote improvement in the PSD95, Ras and reelin gene expression in hippocampus of NMDAR1-knockout (KO) and suggest that these signal pathways are possibly involving in the beneficial effects of EE on memory improvement in this KO mice [18]. Viola GG (2015) Environmental enrichment condition does not alter glutaminesynthetase activity in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of Swiss albino mice
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