PMID- 19309034
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20091214
LR  - 20220309
IS  - 1098-1063 (Electronic)
IS  - 1050-9631 (Linking)
VI  - 19
IP  - 10
DP  - 2009 Oct
TI  - Long-term treadmill exposure protects against age-related neurodegenerative 
      change in the rat hippocampus.
PG  - 1019-29
LID - 10.1002/hipo.20591 [doi]
AB  - The potential of exercise or environmental enrichment to prevent or reverse 
      age-related cognitive decline in rats has been widely investigated. The data 
      suggest that the efficacy of these interventions as neuroprotectants may depend 
      upon the duration and nature of the protocols and age of onset. Investigations of 
      the mechanisms underlying these neuroprotective strategies indicate a potential 
      role for the neurotrophin family of proteins, including nerve growth factor (NGF) 
      and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In this study, we have assessed the 
      effects of 8 months of forced exercise, begun in middle-age, on the expression of 
      long-term potentiation (LTP) and on spatial learning in the Morris water maze in 
      aged Wistar rats. We also assessed these measures in a cage control group and in 
      a group of rats exposed to the stationary treadmill for the same duration as the 
      exercised rats. Our data confirm an age-related decline in expression of LTP and 
      in spatial learning concomitant with decreased expression of NGF and BDNF mRNA in 
      dentate gyrus (DG). The age-related impairments in both plasticity and growth 
      factor expression were prevented in the long-term exercised group and, 
      surprisingly, the treadmill control group. Given the extensive handling that the 
      treadmill control group received and their regular exposure to an environment 
      outside the home cage, this group can be considered to have experienced 
      environmentally enriched conditions when compared with the cage control group. 
      Significant correlations were observed between both learning and LTP and the 
      expression of NGF and BDNF mRNA in the dentate gyrus. We conclude that decreased 
      expression of NGF and BDNF in the dentate gyrus of aged rats is associated with 
      impaired LTP and spatial learning. We suggest that the reversal of these 
      age-related impairments by enrichment and exercise may be linked with prevention 
      of the age-related decline in expression of these growth factors and, 
      furthermore, that enrichment is as efficacious as exercise in preventing this 
      age-related decline.
CI  - Copyright 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
FAU - O'Callaghan, Rachel M
AU  - O'Callaghan RM
AD  - Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, and Trinity College Institute of 
      Neuroscience, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
FAU - Griffin, Eadaoin W
AU  - Griffin EW
FAU - Kelly, Aine M
AU  - Kelly AM
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - United States
TA  - Hippocampus
JT  - Hippocampus
JID - 9108167
RN  - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
RN  - 0 (Nerve Growth Factors)
RN  - 0 (RNA, Messenger)
SB  - IM
MH  - Aging/*physiology
MH  - Analysis of Variance
MH  - Animals
MH  - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/metabolism
MH  - Dentate Gyrus/*physiology
MH  - Environment
MH  - Long-Term Potentiation/*physiology
MH  - Male
MH  - Maze Learning/*physiology
MH  - Nerve Degeneration/*physiopathology
MH  - Nerve Growth Factors/metabolism
MH  - Physical Conditioning, Animal/*physiology
MH  - RNA, Messenger/metabolism
MH  - Rats
MH  - Rats, Wistar
MH  - Running/physiology
MH  - Space Perception/physiology
MH  - Time Factors
EDAT- 2009/03/25 09:00
MHDA- 2009/12/16 06:00
CRDT- 2009/03/25 09:00
PHST- 2009/03/25 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/03/25 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/12/16 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1002/hipo.20591 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Hippocampus. 2009 Oct;19(10):1019-29. doi: 10.1002/hipo.20591.