bagvette

Environmental enrichment inhibits spontaneous apoptosis,
prevents seizures and is neuroprotective

Deborah Young1, Patricia A. Lawlor1,
Paola Leone, Michael Dragunow1 & Matthew J. During


The mammalian brain has a high degree of plasticity,
with dentate granule cell neurogenesis and
glial proliferation stimulated by an enriched environment
combining both complex inanimate and social stimulation.
Moreover, rodents exposed to an enriched environment
both before and after a cerebral insult
show improved cognitive performance. One of the most robust
associations of environmental enrichment
is improved learning and memory in the Morris water maze,
a spatial task that mainly involves the hippocampus.
Furthermore, clinical evidence showing an association
between higher educational attainment and
reduced risk of Alzheimer and Parkinson-related dementia
indicates that a stimulating environment has positive effects
on cerebral health that may provide some resilience to
cerebral insults. Here we show that in addition to
its effects on neurogenesis,
an enriched environment reduces
spontaneous apoptotic cell death in the rat hippocampus by 45%.
Moreover, these environmental conditions protect against
kainate-induced seizures and excitotoxic injury.
The enriched environment induces expression of
glial-derived neurotrophic factor and
brain-derived neurotrophic factor
and increases phosphorylation of the transcription
factor cyclic-AMP response element binding protein,
indicating that the influence of the environment on
spontaneous apoptosis and cerebral resistance to insults
may be mediated through transcription factor
activation and induction of growth factor expression.


Nature Medicine 5, 448-453 (1999) doi:10.1038/7449

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蛤 是有沒有這麼酷啊 環境豐富化!!!?