Dissertação

Influência do tamanho da ninhada sobre o declínio cognitivo e a morfologia microglial da camada molecular do giro denteado em rattus novergicus

It has been proposed that aging is associated with neuroinflammation in the central nervous system but it is not known whether microglial changes induced by aging are affected by early in life effects of litter size. On the other hand the molecular layer of dentate gyrus has been recognized as the m...

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Autor principal: OLIVEIRA, Marcus Augusto de
Grau: Dissertação
Idioma: por
Publicado em: Universidade Federal do Pará 2013
Assuntos:
Acesso em linha: http://repositorio.ufpa.br/jspui/handle/2011/3461
Resumo:
It has been proposed that aging is associated with neuroinflammation in the central nervous system but it is not known whether microglial changes induced by aging are affected by early in life effects of litter size. On the other hand the molecular layer of dentate gyrus has been recognized as the main target of the perforant pathway, whose synaptic integrity is essential for the recognition memories of identity and spatial location. In the present report we investigated if aging cognitive decline and microglial morphological changes in the molecular layer are influenced by litter size changes early in life and aging. To assess these questions Wistar rats suckled in litters of six or 12 pups/mother were raised sedentarily in groups of 2-3 from the 21st post-natal day onwards. At four (mature adult) or 23 (aged) months of age were submitted to spatial memory and object identity recognition tests, sacrificed, perfused with aldehyde fixatives and had their brains processed for selective microglia/macrophages immunolabeling with anti-IBA-1 antibodies. A representative sample of the immunolabeled cells in the molecular layer of dentate gyrus was analyzed after three-dimensional reconstruction with Neurolucida software (Microbright Field Inc.) and morphological features of each cell were quantified by Neuroexplorer (Microbright Field Inc.). It was found that Wistar rats maintained all life in standard laboratory cages showed spatial memory deficits in both mature and aged subjects no matter the litter size. On the other hand all aged subjects independent of the litter size had their object recognition identity memory impaired. Microglial morphological analysis revealed that cell soma area and perimeter and branches volume seem to be more intensely affected by aging and that these changes are mainly associated with animals from large litters. In addition it was observed important shrinkage and thickening of the microglial branches in aged individuals in higher proportion in the group from large litters. Taken together the results suggest that spatial memory seems to be more susceptible to the aging process than object recognition and that these changes are associated with distinct effects on the soma and branching patterns of microglia of molecular layer from young and aged subjects.