Abstract
Lifelong cognitive stimulation is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but causality is difficult to prove. We therefore sought to investigate the preventative potential of environmental enrichment (EE) using mice expressing both human mutant presenilin-1 and the amyloid precursor protein (PS1/PDAPP). At weaning, mice were placed into either an enriched or standard housing environment. Behavioral testing at 4.5-6 months showed that environmentally enriched PS1/PDAPP mice outperformed mice in standard housing, and were behaviorally indistinguishable from non-transgenic mice across multiple cognitive domains. PS1/PDAPP mice exposed to both environmental enrichment and behavioral testing, but not to EE alone, showed 50% less brain β-amyloid without improved dendritic morphology. Microarray analysis revealed large enrichment-induced changes in hippocampal expression of genes/proteins related to Aβ sequestration and synaptic plasticity. These results indicate that EE protects against cognitive impairment in AD transgenic mice through a dual mechanism, including both amyloid dependent and independent mechanisms.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 831-844 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Neurobiology of Aging |
Volume | 28 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2007 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research was supported by grants from the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and from the National Institute on Aging (P50AG025711 and AG09665), a grant to G.A. from the Alzheimer's association, the Eric Pfeiffer Chair for Research in Alzheimer's disease at the Suncoast Gerontology Center at the University of South Florida, and the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute. The procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects were done in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the University of South Florida's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyloid
- Environmental enrichment
- Microarray
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience
- Aging
- Clinical Neurology
- Developmental Biology
- Geriatrics and Gerontology