Efeitos do enriquecimento ambiental sobre padrões de comportamento e ansiedade no Status Epilepticus / Effects of environmental enrichment on behavioral and anxiety no Status Epilepticus

Introdução: O Enriquecimento ambiental (EA) tem sido estudado em reabilitação para diversas patologias. Objetivo: investigar os efeitos do EA em ratos wistar jovens submetidos ao status epilepticus, sobre os padrões de comportamento e ansiedade. Métodos: Estudo longitudinal com 40 ratos, submetidos às crises no 15º dia e enriquecimento ambiental e, posteriormente, aos testes labirinto em cruz elevado e campo aberto. Utilizou-se o teste ANOVA two-way, considerando como significante valor de p<0,05. Resultados: No teste do labirinto houve relação entre levantar em duas patas (p<0,01), comportamento de risco (p<0,01) tempo nos braços abertos (p<0,01), número de entradas nos braços fechados (p<0,01), tempo nos braços fechados (p<0,01) e o número de cruzamentos no campo aberto (p=0,01) com status epilepticus. Não houve relação entre os testes e o EA. Conclusão: O EA não reverteu os padrões de ansiedade e comportamento afetados pelo status epilepticus. (AU)

Background: Environmental Enrichment (EE) has been studied in rehabilitation for several pathologies. Objective: to investigate the effects of EE on young wistar rats submitted to status epilepticus, on behavior and anxiety patterns. Methods: Longitudinal study with 40 rats, submitted to seizures on the 15th day and environmental enrichment, and later to the labyrinth tests in high cross and open field. The two-way ANOVA test was used, considering a significant value of p <0.05. Results: In the labyrinth test, there was a relationship between two paws (p <0.01), risk behavior (p <0.01) in open arms (p <0.01), number of entries in closed arms (p <0.01), time in the closed arms (p <0.01) and the number of crosses in the open field (p = 0.01) with status epilepticus. There was no relationship between the tests and the EE. Conclusion: The EE did not reverse the behavior and anxiety patterns affected by the status epilepticus. (AU)

Beneficial effects of enriched environment following status epilepticus in immature rats.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that enriching the environment can improve cognitive and motor deficits following a variety of brain injuries. Whether environmental enrichment can improve cognitive impairment following status epilepticus (SE) is not known. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the environment in which animals are raised influences cognitive function in normal rats and rats subjected to SE. METHODS: Rats (n = 100) underwent lithium-pilocarpine-induced SE at postnatal (P) day 20 and were then placed in either an enriched environment consisting of a large play area with toys, climbing objects, and music, or in standard vivarium cages for 30 days. Control rats (n = 32) were handled similarly to the SE rats but received saline injections instead of lithium-pilocarpine. Rats were then tested in the water maze, a measure of visual-spatial memory. A subset of the rats were killed during exposure to the enriched or nonenriched environment and the brains examined for dentate granule cell neurogenesis using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and phosphorylated cyclic AMP response element binding protein (pCREB) immunostaining, a brain transcription factor important in long-term memory. RESULTS: Both control and SE rats exposed to the enriched environment performed significantly better than the nonenriched group in the water maze. There was a significant increase in neurogenesis and pCREB immunostaining in the dentate gyrus in both control and SE animals exposed to the enriched environment compared to the nonenriched groups. Environmental enrichment resulted in no change in SE-induced histologic damage. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to an enriched environment in weanling rats significantly improves visual-spatial learning. Even following SE, an enriched environment enhances cognitive function. An increase in neurogenesis and activation of transcription factors may contribute to this enhanced visual-spatial memory.