Deleterious effects of prenatal exposure to morphine on the spatial learning and hippocampal BDNF and long-term potentiation in juvenile rats: Beneficial influences of postnatal treadmill exercise and enriched environment.

Prenatal morphine exposure causes a variety of neurobehavioral alterations observed in later life. The present study investigated the effects of postnatal exercise and enriched environment (EE) on alterations in water maze learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels induced by exposure to morphine during prenatal period in rats. On gestation days 11-18, pregnant rats were injected twice daily with saline or morphine.

Low- and high-intensity treadmill exercise attenuates chronic morphine-induced anxiogenesis and memory impairment but not reductions in hippocampal BDNF in female rats.

Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that treadmill exercise alleviates the deficits in cognitive functions and anxiety behaviors induced by chronic exposure to morphine in male rats. In this study, we investigated the effects of low and high intensities of treadmill exercise on spatial memory, anxiety-like behaviors, and biochemical changes in the hippocampus and serum of morphine-treated female rats. The adult virgin female rats were injected with bi-daily doses (10mg/kg, at 12h intervals) of morphine over a period of 10days.

Effects of voluntary and treadmill exercise on spontaneous withdrawal signs, cognitive deficits and alterations in apoptosis-associated proteins in morphine-dependent rats.

Chronic exposure to morphine results in cognitive deficits and alterations of apoptotic proteins in favor of cell death in the hippocampus, a brain region critically involved in learning and memory. Physical activity has been shown to have beneficial effects on brain health. In the current work, we examined the effects of voluntary and treadmill exercise on spontaneous withdrawal signs, the associated cognitive defects, and changes of apoptotic proteins in morphine-dependent rats.