Gene expression profiling of the rat hippocampus one month after focal cerebral ischemia followed by enriched environment

• Functional recovery after experimental stroke in rats is enhanced by environmental enrichment by stimulating plastic changes in brain regions outside the lesion, but the molecular mechanisms are not known. We investigated the effect of environmental enrichment after focal cerebral ischemia on cognitive recovery and hippocampal gene expression using microarray analysis. Rats placed in enriched environment (EE) for 1 month after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) showed significantly improved spatial memory in the Morris water maze compared to rats housed alone after MCAo. Microarray analysis suggested several EE-induced differences in neuronal plasticity-related genes, but these changes could not be confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. This study highlights some of the potential problems associated with gene expression profiling of brain tissues. Further studies at earlier time points and in additional subregions of the brain are of interest in the search for molecular mechanisms behind EE-induced neuronal plasticity after ischemic stroke.

Nyckelord

animals

brain ischemia/*genetics/metabolism/therapy

cerebral infarction/*genetics/metabolism/therapy

disease models; animal

environment design

gene expression profiling

gene expression regulation/genetics

hippocampus/*metabolism/pathology/physiopathology

infarction; middle cerebral artery/genetics/metabolism/therapy

male

maze learning/physiology

memory disorders/genetics/metabolism/therapy

nerve tissue proteins/*genetics

neuronal plasticity/*genetics

oligonucleotide array sequence analysis

rats

Sprague-Dawley

recovery of function/genetics

time factors

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)