Selective Oestrogen receptor agonists rescued hippocampus parameters in male spontaneously hypertensive rats

PIETRANERA, LUCIANA; CORREA, JULIETA; BROCCA, M. ELVIRA; ROIG, PAULINA; LIMA, ANALÍA; DI GIORGIO, NOELIA; GARCIA SEGURA, LUIS MIGUEL; DE NICOLA, ALEJANDRO F.

JOURNAL OF NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY.

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2016 vol. 28

0953-8194

Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) show pronounced hippocampusalterations, including low brain derived neurotropic factor expression, reducedneurogenesis, astrogliosis and increased aromatase expression. These changesare reverted by treatment with 17b-oestradiol. Toelucidate which oestradiol receptor (ER) type is involved in these neuroprotectiveeffects, we used agonists of the ERa (propylpyrazoletriol ,PPT) and the ERb (diarylpropionitrite, DPN) givenduring 2 weeks to 4 month old male SHR. Wistar Kyoto (WKY) normotensive ratsserved as controls. Using immunocytochemistry, we determined glial fibrillaryprotein (GFAP)+ astrocytes in the CA1, CA3 and hilus of the dentate gyrus ofhippocampus, aromatase immunostaining in the hilus and doublecortin (DCX) +neuronal progenitors in the inner granular zone of the dentate gyrus. BDNF mRNAwas also measured in hippocampus by qPCR. The results showed that PPT had noeffect on blood pressure of SHR, decreased astrogliosis, and increasedaromatase staining, slightly increased BDNF mRNA but had no effect on thenumber of DCX+ progenitors. Treatment with DPN decreased blood pressure of SHR,decreased astrogliosis, increased BDNF mRNA and DCX+ progenitors but did notmodify aromatase staining. We hypothesize that while both receptor types mayparticipate in the previously reported beneficial effects of 17b-oestradiol in SHR, receptor activation with DPN may preferentiallyfacilitate BDNF mRNA expression and neurogenesis. This study may help to designER-based neuroprotection for the encephalopathy of hypertension.