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Gay JD, Dangcil E, Nacipucha J, Botrous JE, Suresh N, Tucker A, Carayannopoulos NL, Khan MR, Meng R, Yao JD, Wackym PA, Mowery TM. An Animal Model of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Exposure to Light and Sound in the Preterm Infant. Integr Comp Biol 2023; 63:585-596. [PMID: 37164937 PMCID: PMC10503467 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icad020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/12/2023] Open
Abstract
According to the World Health Organization, ∼15 million children are born prematurely each year. Many of these infants end up spending days to weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Infants who are born prematurely are often exposed to noise and light levels that affect their auditory and visual development. Children often have long-term impairments in cognition, visuospatial processing, hearing, and language. We have developed a rodent model of NICU exposure to light and sound using the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), which has a low-frequency human-like audiogram and is altricial. To simulate preterm infancy, the eyes and ears were opened prematurely, and animals were exposed to the NICU-like sensory environment throughout the gerbil's cortical critical period of auditory development. After the animals matured into adults, auditory perceptual testing was carried out followed by auditory brainstem response recordings and then histology to assess the white matter morphology of various brain regions. Compared to normal hearing control animals, NICU sensory-exposed animals had significant impairments in learning at later stages of training, increased auditory thresholds reflecting hearing loss, and smaller cerebellar white matter volumes. These have all been reported in longitudinal studies of preterm infants. These preliminary results suggest that this animal model could provide researchers with an ethical way to explore the effects of the sensory environment in the NICU on the preterm infant's brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer D Gay
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
- Rutgers Brain Health Institute, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - Evelynne Dangcil
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Jacqueline Nacipucha
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Jonathon E Botrous
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Nikhil Suresh
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Aaron Tucker
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Nicolas L Carayannopoulos
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Muhammad R Khan
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Raphael Meng
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Justin D Yao
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
- Rutgers Brain Health Institute, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - P Ashley Wackym
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
- Rutgers Brain Health Institute, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - Todd M Mowery
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA
- Rutgers Brain Health Institute, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
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Zhang S, Liu C, Wang Q, Zhou H, Wu H, Zhuang J, Cao Y, Shi H, Zhang J, Wang J. CRYAA and GJA8 promote visual development after whisker tactile deprivation. Heliyon 2023; 9:e13897. [PMID: 36915480 PMCID: PMC10006481 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2022] [Revised: 02/15/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Deprivation of one sense can be followed by enhanced development of other senses via cross-modal plasticity mechanisms. To study the effect of whisker tactile deprivation on vision during the early stages of development, we clipped the bilateral whiskers of young mice and found that their vision was impaired but later recovered to normal levels. Our results demonstrate that inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/ERK signaling pathway caused short-term visual impairment during early development, while high expression levels of Crystallin Alpha A (CRYAA) and Gap Junction Protein Alpha 8 (GJA8) in the retina led to the recovery of developmental visual acuity. Interestingly, analysis of single-cell sequencing results from human embryonic retinas at 9-19 gestational weeks (GW) revealed that CRYAA and GJA8 display stage-specific peak expression during human embryonic retinal development, suggesting potential functions in visual development. Our data show that high expression levels of CRYAA and GJA8 in the retina after whisker deprivation rescue impaired visual development, which may provide a foundation for further research on the mechanisms of cross-modal plasticity and in particular, offer new insights into the mechanisms underlying tactile-visual cross-modal development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shibo Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Cuiping Liu
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Qian Wang
- Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Haicong Zhou
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Hao Wu
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Junyi Zhuang
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Yiyang Cao
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Hongwei Shi
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
| | - Jingfa Zhang
- Department of Ophthalmology, Shanghai General Hospital (Shanghai First People's Hospital), Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Corresponding author.
| | - Jiao Wang
- Laboratory of Molecular Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, 99 Shang Da Road, Shanghai, China
- Corresponding author.
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Martinez-Galan JR, Garcia-Belando M, Cabanes-Sanchis JJ, Caminos E. Pre- and postsynaptic alterations in the visual cortex of the P23H-1 retinal degeneration rat model. Front Neuroanat 2022; 16:1000085. [PMID: 36312296 PMCID: PMC9608761 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2022.1000085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
P23H rats express a variant of rhodopsin with a mutation that leads to loss of visual function with similar properties as human autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The advances made in different therapeutic strategies to recover visual system functionality reveal the need to know whether progressive retina degeneration affects the visual cortex structure. Here we are interested in detecting cortical alterations in young rats with moderate retinal degeneration, and in adulthood when degeneration is severer. For this purpose, we studied the synaptic architecture of the primary visual cortex (V1) by analyzing a series of pre- and postsynaptic elements related to excitatory glutamatergic transmission. Visual cortices from control Sprague Dawley (SD) and P23H rats at postnatal days 30 (P30) and P230 were used to evaluate the distribution of vesicular glutamate transporters VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 by immunofluorescence, and to analyze the expression of postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95) by Western blot. The amount and dendritic spine distribution along the apical shafts of the layer V pyramidal neurons, stained by the Golgi-Cox method, were also studied. We observed that at P30, RP does not significantly affect any of the studied markers and structures, which suggests in young P23H rats that visual cortex connectivity seems preserved. However, in adult rats, although VGLUT1 immunoreactivity and PSD-95 expression were similar between both groups, a narrower and stronger VGLUT2-immunoreactive band in layer IV was observed in the P23H rats. Furthermore, RP significantly decreased the density of dendritic spines and altered their distribution along the apical shafts of pyramidal neurons, which remained in a more immature state compared to the P230 SD rats. Our results indicate that the most notable changes in the visual cortex structure take place after a prolonged retinal degeneration period that affected the presynaptic thalamocortical VGLUT2-immunoreactive terminals and postsynaptic dendritic spines from layer V pyramidal cells. Although plasticity is more limited at these ages, future studies will determine how reversible these changes are and to what extent they can affect the visual system's functionality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan R. Martinez-Galan
- Facultad de Medicina, Instituto de Investigación en Discapacidades Neurológicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
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Chen CC, Brumberg JC. Sensory Experience as a Regulator of Structural Plasticity in the Developing Whisker-to-Barrel System. Front Cell Neurosci 2022; 15:770453. [PMID: 35002626 PMCID: PMC8739903 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2021.770453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Cellular structures provide the physical foundation for the functionality of the nervous system, and their developmental trajectory can be influenced by the characteristics of the external environment that an organism interacts with. Historical and recent works have determined that sensory experiences, particularly during developmental critical periods, are crucial for information processing in the brain, which in turn profoundly influence neuronal and non-neuronal cortical structures that subsequently impact the animals' behavioral and cognitive outputs. In this review, we focus on how altering sensory experience influences normal/healthy development of the central nervous system, particularly focusing on the cerebral cortex using the rodent whisker-to-barrel system as an illustrative model. A better understanding of structural plasticity, encompassing multiple aspects such as neuronal, glial, and extra-cellular domains, provides a more integrative view allowing for a deeper appreciation of how all aspects of the brain work together as a whole.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-Chien Chen
- Department of Psychology, Queens College City University of New York, Flushing, NY, United States.,Department of Neuroscience, Duke Kunshan University, Suzhou, China
| | - Joshua C Brumberg
- Department of Psychology, Queens College City University of New York, Flushing, NY, United States.,The Biology (Neuroscience) and Psychology (Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience) PhD Programs, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, NY, United States
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Kwon KM, Lee MJ, Chung HS, Pak JH, Jeon CJ. The Organization of Somatostatin-Immunoreactive Cells in the Visual Cortex of the Gerbil. Biomedicines 2022; 10:biomedicines10010092. [PMID: 35052772 PMCID: PMC8773527 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines10010092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Revised: 12/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Somatostatin (SST) is widely expressed in the brain and plays various, vital roles involved in neuromodulation. The purpose of this study is to characterize the organization of SST neurons in the Mongolian gerbil visual cortex (VC) using immunocytochemistry, quantitative analysis, and confocal microscopy. As a diurnal animal, the Mongolian gerbil provides us with a different perspective to other commonly used nocturnal rodent models. In this study, SST neurons were located in all layers of the VC except in layer I; they were most common in layer V. Most SST neurons were multipolar round/oval or stellate cells. No pyramidal neurons were found. Moreover, 2-color immunofluorescence revealed that only 33.50%, 24.05%, 16.73%, 0%, and 64.57% of SST neurons contained gamma-aminobutyric acid, calbindin-D28K, calretinin, parvalbumin, and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, respectively. In contrast, neuropeptide Y and nitric oxide synthase were abundantly expressed, with 80.07% and 75.41% in SST neurons, respectively. Our immunocytochemical analyses of SST with D1 and D2 dopamine receptors and choline acetyltransferase, α7 and β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors suggest that dopaminergic and cholinergic fibers contact some SST neurons. The results showed some distinguishable features of SST neurons and provided some insight into their afferent circuitry in the gerbil VC. These findings may support future studies investigating the role of SST neurons in visual processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyung-Min Kwon
- Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, BK21 FOUR KNU Creative Bio-Research Group, College of Natural Sciences, Brain Science and Engineering Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea; (K.-M.K.); (M.-J.L.)
- Research Institute for Dok-do and Ulleung-do Island, Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu 41566, Korea;
| | - Myung-Jun Lee
- Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, BK21 FOUR KNU Creative Bio-Research Group, College of Natural Sciences, Brain Science and Engineering Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea; (K.-M.K.); (M.-J.L.)
| | - Han-Saem Chung
- Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea;
| | - Jae-Hong Pak
- Research Institute for Dok-do and Ulleung-do Island, Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu 41566, Korea;
- Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea;
| | - Chang-Jin Jeon
- Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, BK21 FOUR KNU Creative Bio-Research Group, College of Natural Sciences, Brain Science and Engineering Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea; (K.-M.K.); (M.-J.L.)
- Research Institute for Dok-do and Ulleung-do Island, Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu 41566, Korea;
- Correspondence:
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Harrison SC, Lawrence R, Hoare DJ, Wiggins IM, Hartley DEH. Use of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Predict and Measure Cochlear Implant Outcomes: A Scoping Review. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11111439. [PMID: 34827438 PMCID: PMC8615917 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11111439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Outcomes following cochlear implantation vary widely for both adults and children, and behavioral tests are currently relied upon to assess this. However, these behavioral tests rely on subjective judgements that can be unreliable, particularly for infants and young children. The addition of an objective test of outcome following cochlear implantation is therefore desirable. The aim of this scoping review was to comprehensively catalogue the evidence for the potential of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to be used as a tool to objectively predict and measure cochlear implant outcomes. A scoping review of the literature was conducted following the PRISMA extension for scoping review framework. Searches were conducted in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and Web of Science electronic databases, with a hand search conducted in Google Scholar. Key terms relating to near infrared spectroscopy and cochlear implants were used to identify relevant publications. Eight records met the criteria for inclusion. Seven records reported on adult populations, with five records only including post-lingually deaf individuals and two including both pre- and post-lingually deaf individuals. Studies were either longitudinal or cross-sectional, and all studies compared fNIRS measurements with receptive speech outcomes. This review identified and collated key work in this field. The homogeneity of the populations studied so far identifies key gaps for future research, including the use of fNIRS in infants. By mapping the literature on this important topic, this review contributes knowledge towards the improvement of outcomes following cochlear implantation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha C. Harrison
- NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK; (R.L.); (D.J.H.); (I.M.W.); (D.E.H.H.)
- Hearing Sciences, Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +44-115-823-2640
| | - Rachael Lawrence
- NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK; (R.L.); (D.J.H.); (I.M.W.); (D.E.H.H.)
- Hearing Sciences, Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK
- Nottingham University Hospitals National Health Service Trust, Nottingham NG5 1PB, UK
| | - Derek J. Hoare
- NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK; (R.L.); (D.J.H.); (I.M.W.); (D.E.H.H.)
- Hearing Sciences, Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK
| | - Ian M. Wiggins
- NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK; (R.L.); (D.J.H.); (I.M.W.); (D.E.H.H.)
- Hearing Sciences, Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK
| | - Douglas E. H. Hartley
- NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK; (R.L.); (D.J.H.); (I.M.W.); (D.E.H.H.)
- Hearing Sciences, Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG1 5DU, UK
- Nottingham University Hospitals National Health Service Trust, Nottingham NG5 1PB, UK
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Lee MJ, Lee WT, Jeon CJ. Organization of Neuropeptide Y-Immunoreactive Cells in the Mongolian gerbil ( Meriones unguiculatus) Visual Cortex. Cells 2021; 10:cells10020311. [PMID: 33546356 PMCID: PMC7913502 DOI: 10.3390/cells10020311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2020] [Revised: 01/30/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is found throughout the central nervous system where it appears to be involved in the regulation of a wide range of physiological effects. The Mongolian gerbil, a member of the rodent family Muridae, is a diurnal animal and has been widely used in various aspects of biomedical research. This study was conducted to investigate the organization of NPY-immunoreactive (IR) neurons in the gerbil visual cortex using NPY immunocytochemistry. The highest density of NPY-IR neurons was located in layer V (50.58%). The major type of NPY-IR neuron was a multipolar round/oval cell type (44.57%). Double-color immunofluorescence revealed that 89.55% and 89.95% of NPY-IR neurons contained gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) or somatostatin, respectively. Several processes of the NPY-IR neurons surrounded GABAergic interneurons. Although 30.81% of the NPY-IR neurons contained calretinin, NPY and calbindin-D28K-IR neurons were co-expressed rarely (3.75%) and NPY did not co-express parvalbumin. Triple-color immunofluorescence with anti-GluR2 or CaMKII antibodies suggested that some non-GABAergic NPY-IR neurons may make excitatory synaptic contacts. This study indicates that NPY-IR neurons have a notable architecture and are unique subpopulations of the interneurons of the gerbil visual cortex, which could provide additional valuable data for elucidating the role of NPY in the visual process in diurnal animals.
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