Effects of Maternal Physical Exercise on Global DNA Methylation and Hippocampal Plasticity of Rat Male Offspring.

Intrauterine exposure to exercise is beneficial to cognition of the offspring. Although it is advisable to start practicing physical exercise during pregnancy, it is probable that practitioners or sedentary women keep their previous habits during gestation. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of maternal aerobic exercise initiated before and maintained during gestation, or performed in these isolated periods, on cognition and plasticity in the hippocampus of offspring.

Severe Uncontrolled Maternal Hyperglycemia Induces Microsomia and Neurodevelopment Delay Accompanied by Apoptosis, Cellular Survival, and Neuroinflammatory Deregulation in Rat Offspring Hippocampus.

Maternal diabetes constitutes an unfavorable intrauterine environment for offspring development. Although it is known that diabetes can cause brain alterations and increased risk for neurologic disorders, the relationship between neuroimmune activation, brain changes, and neurodevelopment deficits in the offspring remains unclear. In order to elucidate the short- and long-term biological basis of the developmental outcomes caused by the severe uncontrolled maternal hyperglycemia, we studied apoptosis, neurogenesis, and neuroinflammation pathways in the hippocampus of neonates and young rats born to diabetic dams.

Paternal physical exercise modulates global DNA methylation status in the hippocampus of male rat offspring.

It is widely known that maternal physical exercise is able to induce beneficial improvements in offspring cognition; however, the effects of paternal exercise have not been explored in detail. The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of paternal physical exercise on memory and learning, neuroplasticity and DNA methylation levels in the hippocampus of male offspring. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: sedentary or exercised fathers.

Paternal physical exercise demethylates the hippocampal DNA of male pups without modifying the cognitive and physical development.

Maternal exercise is known to have beneficial effects in progeny development, but the influence of paternal exercise on the offspring still unclear. Since spermatogenesis is a continuous process, the father's life experiences can reprogram epigenetic content of the sperm and somehow interfere on offspring phenotype. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of paternal physical exercise on cognitive and physical development and on hippocampal DNA methylation levels of the offspring.

Long-term effects of pre and post-ischemic exercise following global cerebral ischemia on astrocyte and microglia functions in hippocampus from Wistar rats.

Persistent effects of pre- and postischemic exercise on glial cells activation after global cerebral ischemia remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effect of both pre and postischemic treadmill exercise protocols (20min/day during 2 weeks) on glial cells immunostaining in the hippocampus of Wistar rats submitted to global ischemia. A synergistic effect between ischemia and postischemic exercise on the astrocytic area was demonstrated.

Beneficial effects of early environmental enrichment on motor development and spinal cord plasticity in a rat model of cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy (CP) results from nonprogressive lesions in the immature brain generating changes on the neuromuscular system. Environmental enrichment (EE) is a combination of stimuli that provides greater motivation and interest in novel movement exploration through the provision of various devices associated to enhanced social stimulation that would mimic the physiotherapy approach. The aim of this study was to verify whether EE is able to prevent the establishment of motor impairment in a CP rat model.

Enriched environment induces beneficial effects on memory deficits and microglial activation in the hippocampus of type 1 diabetic rats.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been associated with long-term complications in the central nervous system, causing brain cellular dysfunctions and cognitive deficits. On the other hand, enriched environment (EE) induces experience-dependent plasticity, especially in the hippocampus, improving the performance of animals in learning and memory tasks. Thus, our objective was to investigate the influence of the EE on memory deficits, locomotion, corticosterone levels, synaptophysin (SYP) protein immunoreactivity, cell survival and microglial activation in the dentate gyrus (DG) of T1DM rat hippocampus.

Enriched environment prevents memory deficits in type 1 diabetic rats.

Studies have shown that an enriched environmental (EE) enhances hippocampal neurogenesis and dendritic branching in rodents, improving the performance in learning and memory task. Diabetes, however, is associated with memory deficits and decreasing in cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), possibly related with higher glucocorticoid levels. Thus, our objective was to investigate the influence of EE on the memory deficits and cell proliferation of diabetic rats.