Changes of glial cells and white matter in pubescent stage of schizophrenia rats / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the changes of pubescent immune response in the schizophrenia offspring induced by poly(IC) during pregnancy and the effects on white matter.Methods The obtained pregnant rats were randomly divided into model group(n=6) and control group (n=5), receiving either poly (IC) at a dose of 10 mg/kg diluted in 0.9％ NaC1 solution or vehicle solution alone (sterile pyrogen-free 0.9％ NaC1) on gestation day 9 (GD9).Immunohistochemical technique(IHC) was applied to detect the changes of microglias and astrocytes in the prefrontal cortex(PFC) and hippocampus(HC) of partly offsprings in the two groups at the sixth week,as well as Luxol fast blue(LFB) for the changes of white matter.The other offsprings of each group were selected for behavioral assessment at the eighth week.Results The results of prepulse inhibition test showed that PP2, PP4 and PP8 of model groups were significantly lower than that of the control group at young adult(P＜0.01).In passive avoidance test, and the T1 results of model group were significantly higher than those of the control group, the T results of model group were lower than those of control group (P＜ 0.01).Immunohistochemical results indicated that the number of microglias in the model group((264±33)/mm2, (271 ±38)/mm2) was significantly increased in PFC and HC than that in the control group((140±29)/mm2, (169±37)/mm2, P＜0.05) ,which was accompanied with significant morphological changes, while the OD value of astrocyte protein expression in the frontal lobe and hippocampus had no obvious difference between the model group and control group(P＞0.05).The OD value of LFB staining for myelin in the model group(0.29±0.02) was significantly decreased compared with that in the control group(0.33±0.03)(P＜0.01).Conclusion The young adult offsprings with prenatal infection present obvious schizophrenia-like behavior, meanwhile, the microglias activation and demyelination changes in white matter are observed,which provides more evidence for the relationship between immune response and white matter in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.