Genistein restores hippocampal abnormalities and cognitive impairment in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR)

LABOMBARDA, FLORENCIA; DE NICOLA, ALEJANDRO F.; ROIG, PAULINA; PIETRANERA, LUCIANA; RONCHETTI, SANTIAGO; LIMA, ANALIA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunion anual de Sociedades de Biociencias.; 2019

SAIC

Hippocampal neuropathology is a recognized feature of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). Previous studies have found abnormalities in the hippocampus of SHR consisting of decreased neurogenesis and astroglial and microglial reactivity. These abnormalities are reversed by exogenous administration of estradiol, an active neuroprotective and hypotensive factor. Also, these hippocampal alterations associate with cognitive impairment. We have recently demonstrated that both types of estradiol classical receptors (ERand ER) and the GPER membrane receptorare involved in the neuroprotective action of estradiol. Genistein is a phytoestrogen which binds to ERβ and GPER and it is known to have neuroprotective actions. To elucidate if this phytoestrogen exerts neuroprotective effects in hypertensive encephalopathy we treated 5 month old SHR during 2 weeks with 10mg/kg daily s.c injections of genistein. We measured the expression of DCX+ neuronal progenitors and GFAP+ astrocytes in the hippocampus by immunocytochemistry. Furthermore, we evaluated hippocampal dependent memory using the novel object recognition test (NOR). We found that SHR showed decreased number of DCX+ neural progenitors in the dentate gyrus and treatment with genistein increased this parameter (p