Safar Center Team Studies the Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Behaviors
December 6, 2022
In November 2022, experts from the University of Pittsburgh Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neurobiology published “Environmental enrichment improves traumatic brain injury-induced behavioral phenotype and associated neurodegenerative process” in Experimental Neurology.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes persistent cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. Environmental enrichment (EE) refers to a housing condition that promotes sensory and social stimulation and improves cognition and motor performance, but the underlying mechanisms responsible for such beneficial effects are not well defined.
In this study, anesthetized adult rats received either a moderate-to-severe controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham surgery and then were housed in either EE or standard conditions. The results showed a significant increase in protein nitration and oxidation of lipids, impaired cognition and motor performance, and augmented N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subtype-1 (NMDAR1) levels.
However, EE initiated 24 h after CCI resulted in reduced oxidative insult and microglial activation and significant improvement in beam-balance/walk performance and both spatial learning and memory. The team hypothesizes that following TBI there is an upstream activation of NMDAR1 that promotes oxidative insult and an inflammatory response, thereby resulting in impaired behavioral functioning, but EE may exert a neuroprotective effect via sustained downregulation of NMDAR1.
Research Team
Anthony Kline, PhD
Corina Bondi, PhD
Victor Tapias, PhD
Naima Lajud
Eleni Moschonas
Jeffrey Cheng
Vincent Vozzella
Iya Cooper
