Improvement of autophagy dysfunction as a potential mechanism for environmental enrichment to protect blood-brain barrier in rats with vascular cognitive impairment

Neurosci Lett. 2020 Nov 20:739:135437. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.135437. Epub 2020 Oct 22.

Abstract

Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, and the cognitive impairment is one of the common effects of VCI. Unfortunately, it lacks effective therapeutic treatments at present. In our previous study, environmental enrichment (EE), as an early intervention for lifestyle modification, can ameliorate cognitive impairment by attenuating hippocampal blood-brain barrier (BBB) injury in chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH) rats. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we found CCH rats in the standard environment (SE) developed cognitive impairment and BBB damage, which were significantly alleviated with the EE intervention. Meantime, EE improved the autophagy dysfunction caused by CCH in the hippocampus of rats, suggesting that the effect of EE on cognitive function and BBB may be related to the improvement of autophagy pathway.

Keywords: Autophagy; Blood-brain barrier; Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion; Cognitive impairment; Environmental enrichment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Autophagy*
  • Blood-Brain Barrier / pathology*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / pathology
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / physiopathology*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / prevention & control
  • Dementia, Vascular / pathology
  • Dementia, Vascular / physiopathology*
  • Dementia, Vascular / psychology
  • Environment*
  • Hippocampus / ultrastructure
  • Male
  • Maze Learning
  • Neurons / ultrastructure
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley