Abstract
Physical–cognitive activity has long-lasting beneficial effects on the brain and on behavior. Environmental enrichment (EE) induces brain activity known to influence the behavior of mice, as measured in learned helplessness paradigms (forced swim test), and neurogenic cell populations in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. However, it is not completely clear whether the antidepressant and proneurogenic effects of EE are different in animals that are naive or pre-exposed to the stress inducing helplessness, and if this depends on the type of stressor. It also remains unclear whether differential effects are exerted on distinct neurogenic subpopulations. We found that EE has a protective effect in adult female mice (C57BL/6J) when exposed twice to the same stressor (forced swim test) but it has no influence on recovery. The repeated exposure to this stressor was analyzed together with the effects of EE on different neurogenic populations distinguished by age and differentiation state. Younger cells are more sensitive and responsive to the conditions, both the positive and negative effects. These results are relevant to identify the cell populations that are the targets of stress, depression, and enrichment, and that form part of the mechanism responsible for mood dysfunctions.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Belén García and Carmen Hernández for their help with the confocal microscopy, and Laude Garmendia for her help with the animals at the Cajal Institute. We also appreciate the assistance of Dr Mark Sefton in revising the manuscript. Grant awarded to JLT from the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia. Grant number: BFU2007-60195/BFI. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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The authors declare that, except for income received from the primary employer, no financial support or compensation has been received from any individual or corporate entity over the past 3 years for research or professional service and there are no personal financial holdings that could be perceived as constituting a potential conflict of interest.
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Llorens-Martín, M., Tejeda, G. & Trejo, J. Antidepressant and Proneurogenic Influence of Environmental Enrichment in Mice: Protective Effects vs Recovery. Neuropsychopharmacol 36, 2460–2468 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2011.134
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2011.134
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