The Short Term Effect of Enriched Environment on c- Fos Protein Expression Xujiao Feng Zoology and Physiology April 30, 2011

Environmental enrichment at critical time period for brain development has long lasting effect on the brain maturation !

The Enriched Environment Photograph from Sun Lab

The Enriched Environment A surrounding that provides new and diverse inputs to the mouse brain cortex. Research shows that keeping animal in such habitats has effects like the formation of new synapses and dendritic growth (Klintsova and Greenough,1999). A important tool for studying the process underlying activity-dependent neuronal plasticity. In our study, we design an enriched environment (EE) device to specifically promote external sensory stimuli and examine the EE short term effect on c- Fos induction.

Materials and Methods Mouse Model:  Juvenile P21-27  3h in dark both standard environment (control) and enriched environment Tissue Processing:  Fixation and brain section  Immunochemistry and DAB staining  Mounting Microscopy and Quantification:  Zeiss confocal microscope, Zen 2009  Photograph software: AxioVision Rel. 4.6

Coronal Atlas

Somatosensory Cortex Results

Somatosensory Cortex * Student’s t-test p< 0.05 (wt)

Motor Cortex

Piriform Cortex

Hippocampus

Thalamus Hypothalamus

Quantification

Conclusion Brain-wide c-Fos induction  Elevated neuronal activities  Validated enriched environment short-term effect Significant stimulation in barrel cortex ( fourth layer of somatosensory cortex)  Indicating an enhanced whisker-related exploratory behavior in EE  Tactile experience-dependent activity Future investigation  Time course  Modified protein expression and signal circuits

Acknowledgements Dr. Qian-Quan Sun Jun and everyone in Sun Lab ! EPSCoR

Thanks for your attention!