Association of environmental enrichment and physical exercise is efficient in the rehabilitation of motor sequelae in a murine model of ischemic stroke
Name: DANIELLA CRISTINA DE ASSIS PINTO GOMES
Type: MSc dissertation
Publication date: 26/04/2022
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| CRISTINA MARTINS E SILVA | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| AURÉLIA ARAÚJO FERNANDES | Internal Examiner * |
| BRENO VALENTIM NOGUEIRA | Co advisor * |
| CRISTINA MARTINS E SILVA | Advisor * |
Summary: Stroke is the leading cause of disability in adults and the second leading cause of death in the world The stroke can manifest itself in two ways, hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke. The most common one, the ischemic stroke, is caused by the presence of thrombus or embolus in the vessel, or because of a cardiac arrest. Physical and cognitive impairment are recurrent sequelae in cerebral ischemia, and can be minimized with the adoption of appropriate post-stroke rehabilitation treatments, such as physical exercise (PE) and enriched environment exposure (EE). In this context, this research investigated the association between EE exposure and PE in motor and cognitive function recovering in mice submitted to an ischemic stroke. The animals used in the experiments, male mice C57Bl/6 (8 to 12 weeks old) were either submitted to bilateral occlusion of the common carotid arteries (BCCAo) for 35 minutes or sham-operated (sham). Subsequently, ischemic and sham animals were splited into one between eight groups, according to, housing conditions (standard environment (SE) or enriched environment (EE)) and whether or not they underwent conditioned physical activity sessions (PE): ischemic or sham treated with SE without PE (SE/S), PE in standard environment (SE/E), association of EE and PE (EE/E), e standard environment without PE (SE/S). Rehabilitation started 48 h after surgery and lasted for 30 days. The animals in the EE groups were placed in large boxes (60cm × 50cm × 22cm) with 6 toys alternated weekly, while the others were placed in standard mice boxes. The PE model used was swimming, performed 3 times a week for a period of 4 weeks. The duration of the sections was gradually increased each week, until a maximum time of 30 minutes. The statistics indicate that the animals submitted to BCCAo developed motor deficits. In addition, the animals that were submitted to the EE and PE association obtained an increase in motor, but it was not possible to conclude that there was an improvement in cognitive function. In this way, this study suggests that the association between EE and PE is more effective for motor sequelae treatment of animals submitted to BCCAo.
Keywords: cerebral ischemia; physical exercise; enriched environment; rehabilitation; cognition.
