Protective effects of estradiol in the brain of rats with genetic or

PIETRANERA L.; SARAVIA F.; ROIG, P; LIMA A.; DE NICOLA A.F.

PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Holanda; Año: 2008 vol. 33 p. 270 - 281

0306-4530

Hippocampal neuropathology is a recognized feature of SHR. In previous studies we found that DOCA-salt hypertensive rats and SHR present similar abnormalities in the hippocampus, consisting of decreased cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus (DG), astroglial reactivity and decreased neuronal density in the hilus of the DG. Our objective was to investigate whether estradiol, an active neuroprotective agent, reversed these abnormalities in both models of hypertension. For this purpose we used male SHR (BP» 190 mm Hg) and their normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) controls; and DOCA-salt rats (BP» 160 mm Hg) and normotensive controls. Half of the animals in each model received a 14mg estradiol benzoate pellet during 2 weeks. Brain measures included: I) cell proliferation in DG using the BrdU labelling technique; II) number of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive astrocytes under the CA1, CA3 and DG; III) neuronal density in the hilus of the DG. In both models of hypertension, estradiol treatment restored cell proliferation in the DG, increased the number of hilar neurons and normalized the number of GFAP+ astrocytes. Therefore, glial and neuronal changes of hypertensive models seemed to be plastic events, susceptible to normalization by pharmacological treatment with the neuroprotective steroid estradiol.