MODIFICATION OF BDNF RECEPTORS IN ANIMALS EXPOSED TO ENRICHED ENVIRONMENT AFTER A NEONATAL STRESSFUL EVENT

CORDIER M.; AGUGGIA, J.P.; DANELON V.; RIVAROLA, M.A.; MASCÓ D

La Falda (Córdoba)

Jornada; XXI Annual Scientific Meeting; 2017

Sociedad de Biologia de Córdoba

Early life stressful events, such as early maternal separation lead to decreased neuronal plasticity, increased depression, and decreasedcognitive abilities. On the other hand, environmental enrichment is a condition that increases sensory, social and physical stimulation andimproves cognitive abilities, favoring neuronal plasticity. The aim of this study was to address the interaction of both events, maternalseparation and environmental enrichment, from the ethological, behavioral and neurochemical aspects. For this purpose, an early maternalseparation stress protocol of 4.5 h / day was applied to male Wistar rats until weaning and after that a post-weaning enriched environmentuntil day 60. In the four experimental groups: NMS / NEE (without maternal separation + without enriched environment), MS/NEE(maternal separation/without enriched environment), NMS/EE (with no maternal separation + enriched environment), SM / EE (maternalseparation + enriched environment), the following behavioral tests were applied: forced swimming (to assess depression-like behaviors)and the Barnes test (to assess learning and memory).Besides, immunodetection (Western Blot) of relative levels of BDNF-associatedproteins was performed. It was observed that maternal separation has deleterious effects on learning capacity, which is reversed byenvironmental enrichment. Both environmental stimuli, separation and / or enrichment, had the capacity to increase memory levelsregarding control animals (without maternal separation + without environmental enrichment). Finally, it was found that there are variationsin TrkB full length and truncated levels, which would be associated with a neuroprotective effect against stress. Modifications in the Erk /pErk signaling cascade were also observed