Environmental enrichment ameliorates perinatal brain injury and promotes functional white matter recovery

Thomas A. Forbes, Evan Z. Goldstein, Jeffrey L. Dupree, Beata Jablonska, Joseph Scafidi, Katrina L. Adams, Yuka Imamura, Kazue Hashimoto-Torii and Vittorio Gallo ()
Additional contact information
Thomas A. Forbes: Children’s National Hospital
Evan Z. Goldstein: Children’s National Hospital
Jeffrey L. Dupree: Virginia Commonwealth University
Beata Jablonska: Children’s National Hospital
Joseph Scafidi: Children’s National Hospital
Katrina L. Adams: Children’s National Hospital
Yuka Imamura: Penn State University, College of Medicine
Kazue Hashimoto-Torii: Children’s National Hospital
Vittorio Gallo: Children’s National Hospital

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Hypoxic damage to the developing brain due to preterm birth causes many anatomical changes, including damage to the periventricular white matter. This results in the loss of glial cells, significant disruptions in myelination, and thereby cognitive and behavioral disabilities seen throughout life. Encouragingly, these neurological morbidities can be improved by environmental factors; however, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain unknown. We found that early and continuous environmental enrichment selectively enhances endogenous repair of the developing white matter by promoting oligodendroglial maturation, myelination, and functional recovery after perinatal brain injury. These effects require increased exposure to socialization, physical activity, and cognitive enhancement of surroundings—a complete enriched environment. Using RNA-sequencing, we identified oligodendroglial-specific responses to hypoxic brain injury, and uncovered molecular mechanisms involved in enrichment-induced recovery. Together, these results indicate that myelin plasticity induced by modulation of the neonatal environment can be targeted as a therapeutic strategy for preterm birth.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14762-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14762-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14762-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().