Maternal separation with early weaning impairs neuron-glia integrity: non-invasive evaluation and substructure demonstration

Sci Rep. 2020 Nov 10;10(1):19440. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-76640-y.

Abstract

Astrocytes and oligodendrocytes play essential roles in regulating neural signal transduction along neural circuits in CNS. The perfect coordination of neuron/astrocyte and neuron/oligodendrocyte entities was termed as neuron-glia integrity recently. Here we monitored the status of neuron-glia integrity via non-invasive neuroimaging methods and demonstrated the substructures of it using other approaches in an animal model of maternal separation with early weaning (MSEW), which mimics early life neglect and abuse in humans. Compared to controls, MSEW rats showed higher glutamate level, but lower GABA in prefrontal cortex (PFC) detected by chemical exchange saturation transfer and 1H-MRS methods, lower levels of glial glutamate transporter-1 and ATP-α, but increased levels of glutamate decarboxylase-65 and glutamine synthetase in PFC; reduced fractional anisotropy in various brain regions revealed by diffusion tensor imaging, along with increased levels of N-acetyl-aspartate measured by 1H-MRS; and hypomyelination in PFC as evidenced by relevant cellular and molecular changes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Astrocytes / metabolism
  • Diffusion Tensor Imaging
  • Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2 / metabolism
  • Glutamate Decarboxylase / metabolism
  • Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase / metabolism
  • Glutamine / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Neuroglia / metabolism*
  • Neurons / metabolism*
  • Oligodendroglia / metabolism
  • Prefrontal Cortex / diagnostic imaging
  • Prefrontal Cortex / metabolism
  • Rats
  • Signal Transduction
  • Weaning*
  • gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / metabolism

Substances

  • Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2
  • Slc1a2 protein, rat
  • Glutamine
  • gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
  • Glutamate Decarboxylase
  • glutamate decarboxylase 2
  • Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase