RESUMEN
Hepatic encephalopathy is a neurological complication observed in patients with liver disease. Subjects with hepatic encephalopathy can develop memory alterations. In order to investigate brain oxidative metabolism in an animal model of chronic cirrhosis and its modification after spatial working memory task, we determined the neural metabolic activity of several brain limbic system regions by cytochrome oxidase (COx) histochemistry and assessed the spatial working memory in the Morris water maze of rats with cirrhosis by administration of thioacetamide. This COx histochemistry was done in cirrhotic and control rats under basal conditions and after the spatial working memory task. The histochemical results showed differences in basal COx activity between control and cirrhotic rats in hippocampal and thalamic regions. In cirrhotic rats basal COx activity was increased in the CA1 and CA3 areas of the hippocampus and reduced in the anterodorsal and anteroventral thalamic nuclei. We found impaired spatial working memory in animals with cirrhosis. These animals showed absence of metabolic activation of the CA3 hippocampal subfield and the lateral mammillary nucleus and disturbance of COx activity in the medial mammillary nucleus and the anteroventral thalamus. These findings suggest that cirrhotic rats show spatial working memory deficits that could be related to the alteration of metabolic activity of neural regions thought to be involved in the processing of spatial memories.
Asunto(s)
Encéfalo/metabolismo , Complejo IV de Transporte de Electrones/metabolismo , Cirrosis Hepática/fisiopatología , Aprendizaje por Laberinto/fisiología , Memoria/fisiología , Análisis de Varianza , Animales , Encéfalo/fisiopatología , Modelos Animales de Enfermedad , Conducta Exploratoria/fisiología , Hipocampo/metabolismo , Hipocampo/fisiopatología , Inmunohistoquímica , Cirrosis Hepática/inducido químicamente , Cirrosis Hepática/metabolismo , Masculino , Tubérculos Mamilares/metabolismo , Tubérculos Mamilares/fisiopatología , Neuronas/metabolismo , Ratas , Ratas Wistar , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Conducta Espacial/fisiología , Tálamo/metabolismo , Tálamo/fisiopatología , TioacetamidaRESUMEN
The physiopathological mechanisms involved in the systemic posttraumatic inflammatory response are studied. The successive phases of this inflammatory response are trophic mechanisms of increasing complexity. Moreover, evolutionary complications would give rise to the return to more primitive trophic mechanisms (AU)
Fases evolutivas tróficas de la respuesta inflamatoria aguda sistémica, mecanismos de utilización del oxígeno y metamorfosis. Se estudian los mecanismos fisiopatológicos implicados en la respuesta inflamatoria postraumática. Se considera que las sucesivas fases de esta respuesta inflamatoria constituyen mecanismos tróficos de complejidad creciente. Asimismo, las complicaciones evolutivas ocasionarían la regresión a mecanismos tróficos más primitivos (AU)