Short and long-term assessment of noise exposure on hippocampal oxidative stress in adolescent female and male rats

BUJÁN, GE; SERRA, HA; MOLINA, SJ; GUELMAN, LR

Virtual

Congreso; REUNION CONJUNTA SAIC-SAI-AAFE-NANOMED.AR 2021; 2021

SAIC-SAI-AAFE-NANOMED.AR

Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that noise exposure was able to triggerbehavioral and neurochemical alterations in the Central Nervous System (CNS) of adolescentmale rats when evaluated at short-term, whereas results in females have not been obtainedyet. In addition, long-term measurements have not been performed. Therefore, the aim of thepresent work was to investigate the effects of noise exposure in the hippocampus (HC) ofadolescent female and male rats on biochemical parameters evaluated at short and long-term.Male and females PND28 Wistar rats were separated into different cages and at PND 33 asubgroup was exposed to noise (2h, 95-97 dB). HC was dissected at short (PND 33) and longterm (PND 39) to assess reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and catalase activity (CAT).Results showed an increase in ROS levels in females (sham: 0.004±0.001; noise: 0.123±0.005)and males (sham: 0.019±0.004; noise: 0.054±0.003) and an increase in CAT activity only inmales (sham: 0.0004±0,0002 noise: 0.001±0.0001) when evaluated at short term. In contrast,long-term results showed a decrease in CAT activity in females (sham: 0.001±0.0004; noise:0.0003±0.0007), whereas no significant differences were found in males. No differences werefound in either group in ROS levels.These results suggest that noise exposure may induce short-term changes in oxidative markersthat seem to disappear at long-term and to be sex-specific. In conclusion, adolescence seemsto be a period of vulnerability to different stimuli capable of generating oxidative imbalance inthe hippocampus, which could underlie some of the behavioral changes previously observed.