PMID- 22710068
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20121214
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 1873-7544 (Electronic)
IS  - 0306-4522 (Linking)
VI  - 220
DP  - 2012 Sep 18
TI  - The impact of environmental enrichment on sex-specific neurochemical circuitries 
      - effects on brain-derived neurotrophic factor and the serotonergic system.
PG  - 267-76
LID - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.06.016 [doi]
AB  - Experimental evidence in mice indicates that environmental conditions affect 
      females and males differently. However, in a recent study analyzing the 
      heterozygous mutation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), both sexes 
      presented a similar emotional phenotype, which became obvious only under 
      impoverished, but not in enriched conditions suggesting an "enrichment-induced" 
      rescue. To investigate the basis of this behavioral "rescue" effect, we analyzed 
      neurochemical changes (BDNF expression, serotonergic changes, and corticosterone) 
      in the hippocampus, frontal cortex and hypothalamus of animals housed under 
      respective conditions. In male mice, enrichment induced an increase of BDNF 
      expression in the hippocampus of both BDNF heterozygous (BDNF(+/-)) and 
      wild-types. Notably, in enriched-reared BDNF(+/-) mice BDNF mRNA and protein 
      increased to levels comparable to those of wild-types in impoverished 
      environment. In the frontal cortex of males, only wild-types presented an 
      enrichment-induced increase of BDNF mRNA, while no effect of environment could be 
      detected in BDNF protein levels of the male hypothalamus. A further male-specific 
      effect of "environment" is the significant reduction of hypothalamic 
      5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in enriched-housed wild-types. In female mice, 
      environmental enrichment did not affect BDNF expression in the hippocampus and 
      hypothalamus. However, comparable to males, an enrichment-induced increase of 
      BDNF mRNA was detected in the frontal cortex of wild-types only. In contrast to 
      males, no influence of environment on serotonergic parameters was observed. Male 
      and female corticosterone levels were neither affected by "genotype" nor by 
      "environment". In conclusion, we propose that the rescue of the emotional 
      phenotype by environmental enrichment in BDNF(+/-) mice is directed by distinct 
      mechanisms in males and females. Only in male BDNF(+/-) mice the rescue is 
      related to an increase in hippocampal BDNF expression suggesting that enrichment 
      triggers different neuronal systems in a gender-specific manner.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
FAU - Chourbaji, S
AU  - Chourbaji S
AD  - Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim (ZI), University of Heidelberg, 
      Germany.
FAU - Hortnagl, H
AU  - Hortnagl H
FAU - Molteni, R
AU  - Molteni R
FAU - Riva, M A
AU  - Riva MA
FAU - Gass, P
AU  - Gass P
FAU - Hellweg, R
AU  - Hellweg R
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20120616
PL  - United States
TA  - Neuroscience
JT  - Neuroscience
JID - 7605074
RN  - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
RN  - 0 (RNA, Messenger)
RN  - 333DO1RDJY (Serotonin)
RN  - W980KJ009P (Corticosterone)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Brain/*metabolism
MH  - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/genetics/*metabolism
MH  - Corticosterone/blood
MH  - *Environment
MH  - Female
MH  - Genotype
MH  - Housing, Animal
MH  - Male
MH  - Mice
MH  - Mice, Inbred C57BL
MH  - Mice, Transgenic
MH  - RNA, Messenger/analysis
MH  - Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
MH  - Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
MH  - Serotonin/*metabolism
MH  - *Sex Characteristics
EDAT- 2012/06/20 06:00
MHDA- 2012/12/15 06:00
CRDT- 2012/06/20 06:00
PHST- 2012/02/22 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2012/05/15 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2012/06/07 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2012/06/20 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/06/20 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2012/12/15 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0306-4522(12)00616-1 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.06.016 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Neuroscience. 2012 Sep 18;220:267-76. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.06.016. 
      Epub 2012 Jun 16.