Environmental enrichment improves traumatic brain injury-induced behavioral phenotype and associated neurodegenerative process

Producción CientíficaTraumatic brain injury (TBI) causes persistent cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. Environmental enrichment (EE) refers to a housing condition that promotes sensory and social stimulation and improves cognition and motor performance but the underlying mechanisms responsible for such beneficial effects are not well defined. In this study, anesthetized adult rats received either a moderate-to-severe controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham surgery and then were housed in either EE or standard conditions. The results showed a significant increase in protein nitration and oxidation of lipids, impaired cognition and motor performance, and augmented N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subtype-1 (NMDAR1) levels. However, EE initiated 24 h after CCI resulted in reduced oxidative insult and microglial activation and significant improvement in beam-balance/walk performance and both spatial learning and memory. We hypothesize that following TBI there is an upstream activation of NMDAR that promotes oxidative insult and an inflammatory response, thereby resulting in impaired behavioral functioning but EE may exert a neuroprotective effect via sustained downregulation of NMDAR1

Criteria of validity for animal models of psychiatric disorders: focus on anxiety disorders and depression

Animal models of psychiatric disorders are usually discussed with regard to three criteria first elaborated by Willner; face, predictive and construct validity. Here, we draw the history of these concepts and then try to redraw and refine these criteria, using the framework of the diathesis model of depression that has been proposed by several authors. We thus propose a set of five major criteria (with sub-categories for some of them); homological validity (including species validity and strain validity), pathogenic validity (including ontopathogenic validity and triggering validity), mechanistic validity, face validity (including ethological and biomarker validity) and predictive validity (including induction and remission validity). Homological validity requires that an adequate species and strain be chosen: considering species validity, primates will be considered to have a higher score than drosophila, and considering strains, a high stress reactivity in a strain scores higher than a low stress reactivity in another strain. Pathological validity corresponds to the fact that, in order to shape pathological characteristics, the organism has been manipulated both during the developmental period (for example, maternal separation: ontopathogenic validity) and during adulthood (for example, stress: triggering validity). Mechanistic validity corresponds to the fact that the cognitive (for example, cognitive bias) or biological mechanisms (such as dysfunction of the hormonal stress axis regulation) underlying the disorder are identical in both humans and animals. Face validity corresponds to the observable behavioral (ethological validity) or biological (biomarker validity) outcomes: for example anhedonic behavior (ethological validity) or elevated corticosterone (biomarker validity). Finally, predictive validity corresponds to the identity of the relationship between the triggering factor and the outcome (induction validity) and between the effects of the treatments on the two organisms (remission validity). The relevance of this framework is then discussed regarding various animal models of depression

Occurrence of Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus, 1758) in a World Biosphere Reserve, the Mar Chiquita Coastal Lagoon (Argentina)

Paleogeographical, morphological, ecological, physiological, linguistic, archeological and historical evidence demonstrated that the wild ancestor of the common carp Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758 originated in the Black, Caspian and Aral sea drainages and naturally dispersed east into Siberia and China and west as far as the Danube River (Balon, 1995). This species has been introduced in all continents (Lever, 1996). In most countries where it was introduced, a wide array of negative impacts on native biota and ecosystems has been documented (Bernstein and Olson, 2001). Because of its historical use in aquaculture and as an ornamental fish, this species has become widely dispersed. It is recorded in more than 50 localities in Argentina: in the Paran a, Uruguay and Plata river basins (Liotta, 2014), as well as in the Mirim lagoon (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) (Garcia et al., 2004). In the Pampa plain the distribution of this species is restricted to freshwater ecosystems of the Salado River Basin (Rosso, 2006).Fil: González Castro, Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Rosso, Juan Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Lajud, N. A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Castellini, Damián Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Díaz de Astarloa, Juan Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin

Introducing Positive Leadership in the teaching & learning process of Higher Education

Enhancing the effectiveness of the learning process in Higher Education requires enough doses of creativity, which can be inspired by successful initiatives that have worked in other fields. This is the case with Positive Leadership (PL), whose principles and implementation strategies have been well researched, and whose efficacy has been demonstrated across a diverse range of contexts and organizations. Thus, Positive leadership is positioned very favorably to be also tested in an educational environment. This article describes how a team of faculty members from several universities are working together to be able to transfer the Positive leadership principles (positive meaning, positive communication, positive relationships and positive climate) to the teaching-learning process, under the hypothesis that it will improve academic performance, student satisfaction with faculty and the engagement of faculty members.Sin financiaciónNo data 2018UE

Environmental enrichment improves traumatic brain injury-induced behavioral phenotype and associated neurodegenerative process

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes persistent cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. Environmental enrichment (EE) refers to a housing condition that promotes sensory and social stimulation and improves cognition and motor performance but the underlying mechanisms responsible for such beneficial effects are not well defined. In this study, anesthetized adult rats received either a moderate-to-severe controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham surgery and then were housed in either EE or standard conditions. The results showed a significant increase in protein nitration and oxidation of lipids, impaired cognition and motor performance, and augmented N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subtype-1 (NMDAR1) levels. However, EE initiated 24 h after CCI resulted in reduced oxidative insult and microglial activation and significant improvement in beam-balance/walk performance and both spatial learning and memory. We hypothesize that following TBI there is an upstream activation of NMDAR that promotes oxidative insult and an inflammatory response, thereby resulting in impaired behavioral functioning but EE may exert a neuroprotective effect via sustained downregulation of NMDAR1.This work was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health grant NS084967 (AEK), the Research Advisory Committee, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC (COB), the María Zambrano Excellence Program from the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the University of Valladolid, Spain (VT), and the Internationalization program of Junta de Castilla y Leon, Spain (CL-EI-2021-09 IBGM, VT)