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Four-month enriched environment prevents myelinated fiber loss in the white matter during normal aging of male rats

Brain Structure and Function volume 220, pages 1263–1272 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

White matter degenerates with normal aging and accordingly results in declines in multiple brain functions. Previous neuroimaging studies have implied that the white matter is plastic by experiences and contributory to the experience-dependent recovery of brain functions. However, it is not clear how and how far enriched environment (EE) plays a role in the white matter remodeling. Male rats exhibit earlier and severer age-related damages in the white matter and its myelinated fibers than female rats; therefore, in this current study, 24 middle-aged (14-month-old) and 24 old-aged (24-month-old) male SD rats were randomly assigned to an EE or standard environment (SE) for 4 months prior to Morris water maze tests. Five rats from each group were then randomly sampled for stereological assessment of the white matter. Results revealed that EE could somewhat induce improvement of spatial learning and significantly increase the white matter volume, the myelinated fiber volume and the myelinated fiber length during normal aging. The EE-induced improvement of spatial learning ability was significantly correlated with the EE-induced increase of the white matter and its myelinated fibers. We suggested that exposure to an EE could delay the progress of age-related changes in the white matter and the effect could extend to old age.

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Acknowledgments

Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20121107120020); Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81171238 and 31271288); 2011 Projects for Supporting Excellent Ph.D. Students of Chongqing Medical University; Research Foundation for 100 Academic and Discipline Talented Leaders of Chongqing, P. R. China.

Conflict of interest

All authors declared no actual or potential conflicts of interest.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Histology and Embryology, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Shu Yang & Yong Tang

  2. Department of Histology and Embryology, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, People’s Republic of China

    Shu Yang & De-shan Zhou

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Navy General Hospital, Beijing, 100069, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Lu

Authors
  1. Shu Yang
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  2. Wei Lu
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  3. De-shan Zhou
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  4. Yong Tang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Tang.

Additional information

S. Yang and W. Lu contributed equally to this work.

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Yang, S., Lu, W., Zhou, Ds. et al. Four-month enriched environment prevents myelinated fiber loss in the white matter during normal aging of male rats. Brain Struct Funct 220, 1263–1272 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0721-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0721-0

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Enriched environment
  • Myelinated fiber
  • Stereology
  • White matter