Spatial learning as activator of hippocampal neurogenesis during aging and development of Alzheimer\’s disease-like pathology

Poster (download)

129

Alena Burnyasheva¹, Tatiana Kozlova², Ekaterina Rudnitskaya³, Natalia Stefanova^4
1Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, burnyasheva@bionet.nsc.ru
²Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, kozlova@bionet.nsc.ru
³Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, rudnickaya@bionet.nsc.ru
⁴Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, stefanovan@bionet.nsc.ru

Adult neurogenesis in dentate gyrus (DG) is one of the key mechanisms of neuronal plasticity in hippocampus and plays an important role in cognitive function. However, the consequences of its alteration during healthy aging as well as development of neurodegeneration including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remain unclear. It was shown that factors which can activate neurogenesis – such as physical exercises and learning – are able to improve cognitive function. Animal models are useful to clarify the connection between adult neurogenesis and cognitive function during development of AD signs, and OXYS rats are a suitable model for the most common sporadic form of AD. Here we examined effects of spatial learning on neurogenesis in DG of OXYS rats prior to and during manifestation of AD signs. We showed altered reference memory of OXYS rats already at the period prior to neurodegeneration. At the period of active manifestation of AD signs OXYS rats demonstrated altered spatial learning and reversal learning, whereas reference memory was altered only a little. At the period of active amyloid-ОІ accumulation in the brain only reference memory of OXYS rats was altered. Spatial learning resulted in accelerated maturation of immature cells of neuronal and astrocytic cell lineages in DG of OXYS and Wistar rats and decrease of amyloid-ОІ content in aged animals.