Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Gustavo Ezequiel Buján | email: gbujan@hotmail.es
Gustavo Ezequiel Buján 1°, Luciana D´Alessio 1°3°, Héctor Alejandro Serra 1°, Sonia Jazmín Molina 2°, Laura Ruth Guelman 1°2°
1° Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. 1ª Cátedra de Farmacología. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2° Universidad de Buenos Aires. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos (CEFyBO, UBA-CONICET). Buenos Aires, Argentina.
3° Universidad de Buenos Aires. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencias (IBCN, UBA-CONICET). Facultad de Medicina, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We have previously shown that noise exposure can induce hippocampal-related behavioral and oxidative alterations in adolescent rats. However, no data about the hippocampal (HC) oxidative state have been obtained in animals subjected to voluntary ethanol yet. Even more, a non-pharmacological neuroprotective strategy, the enriched environment (EE), has not been explored in this model. In consequence, the aim of the present work was to test whether these agents, present individually or sequentially, can affect behavior, ROS levels and catalase activity in the HC. In addition, the effectiveness of housing in an EE was also assessed. 28-days-old male and female Wistar rats were housed in standard or EE cages and subjected to voluntary ethanol two-bottle choice paradigm for 1 week. After that, animals were exposed to noise and different behavioral and biochemical parameters were evaluated. Results showed that, after housing in an EE, several behavioral alterations, as well as biochemical parameters, were partially restored and differed among sexes. These findings suggest that rats exposed to physical and chemical agents during adolescence could induce sex-specific, HC-related behavioral and biochemical alterations, demonstrating a high vulnerability of the developing brain. As these changes can be partially restored by the housing in an EE, it could be hypothesized that only one week of housing in an EE could be an effective neuroprotective tool in this model.