Visual input is necessary to achieve retinal neuroprotection in an enriched environment

DORFMAN D; GONZALEZ FLEITAS M FLORENCIA ; ARANDA ML; MIRANDA M; ROSENSTEIN RE

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXX- SAN- Annual Meeting; 2015

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Sensory SystemsP231.-Visual input is necessary to achieve retinal neuroprotection in anenriched environmentDamian Dorfman1°, Maria Florencia González Fleitas1°, Marcos L. Aranda1°, MagdalenaMiranda2°, Ruth E. Rosenstein1°1° Laboratorio de Neuroquimica Retiniana y Oftalmologia Experimental, Dpto. Bioquimica Humana,Facultad de Medicina, UBA, CEFYBO/CONICET 2° Instituto de Biologia Celular y Neurociencias, Facultadde Medicina, UBA, CONICETdamiandorfman@gmail.com_____________________________________________________________Enriched environment (EE) is defined as a complex combination of inanimate and socialinteraction. In EE, several animals are housed in big cages, with frequently changingobjects, thus stimulating exploratory conduct, voluntary physical exercise, enhanced visualand cognitive functions, and social interaction. However, the relative contribution of eachof these components to the effects of EE is still controversial. Different groups havedescribed the effects of the environment on visual plasticity during development.However, up to now, there was no information on the effect of the environment on theretina of adult animals, originally considered a non-plastic tissue. For the first time, wehave shown that the exposure to EE protects the retinal function and histology from acuteunilateral retinal ischemia and diabetic retinopathy in adult rats. Then, we aimed to dissectthe contribution of social, motor and visual stimuli to the neuroprotection induced by EE.When ischemia was bilaterally induced, the protection triggered by EE was abolished,suggesting that the visual input, likely regardless of social and/or motor components, was anecessary condition within EE to achieve retinal neuroprotection. These results suggestthat, at least for the visual pathway, visual stimuli and, probably, its central processing,could account for the retinal neuroprotection induced by EE, which could become the firstevidence of the visual contribution in the protective effects of EE.