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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Learning and Memory
Volume 18 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1448691
Exercise leads to sex-specific recovery of behavior and pathological AD markers following adolescent ethanol exposure in the TgF344-AD model
Provisionally accepted- Binghamton University, Binghamton, United States
Human epidemiological studies suggest that heavy alcohol consumption may lead to earlier onset of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), especially in individuals with a genetic predisposition for AD. Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) during a critical developmental timepoint, such as adolescence, interacts with AD-related pathologies to accelerate disease progression later in life.The current study investigates if voluntary exercise in mid-adulthood can recover memory deficits caused by the interactions between adolescence ethanol exposure and AD-transgenes. Male and female TgF344-AD and wildtype F344 rats were exposed to an intragastric gavage of water (control) or 5g/kg of 20% ethanol (adolescent intermittent ethanol; AIE) for a 2 day on/off schedule throughout adolescence (PD27-57). At 6 months old, rats either remained in their home cage (stationary) or were placed in a voluntary wheel running apparatus for 4 weeks. Voluntary wheel running recovers spatial working memory deficits selectively in female TgF344-AD rats exposed to AIE and improves pattern separation impairment seen in control TgF344-AD female rats. There were sex-dependent effects on brain pathology: Exercise improves the integration of recently born neurons in AIE-exposed TgF344-AD female rats. Exercise led to a decrease in amyloid burden in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, but only in male AIE-exposed TgF344-AD rats. Although the number of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons was not affected by AD-transgenes in either sex, AIE did reduce the number of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in female rats. Our data provide support that even after symptom onset, AIE and AD-related cognitive decline and associated neuropathologies can be rescued with exercise in unique sex-specific ways.
Keywords: alcohol, Adolecence, Exercise, Alzheimer's disease, Hippocampus
Received: 13 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Jul 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Reitz, Nunes and Savage. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lisa M. Savage, Binghamton University, Binghamton, United States
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