Chrysophanol attenuates lead exposure-induced injury to hippocampal neurons in neonatal mice

Previous studies have shown that chrysophanol protects against learning and memory impairments in lead-exposed adult mice. In the present study, we investigated whether chrysophanol can alleviate learning and memory dysfunction and hippocampal neuronal injury in lead-exposed neonatal mice. At the end of lactation, chrysophanol（0.1, 1.0, 10.0 mg/kg） was administered to the neonatal mice by intraperitoneal injection for 15 days. Chrysophanol significantly alleviated injury to hippocampal neurons and improved learning and memory abilities in the lead-poisoned neonatal mice. Chrysophanol also significantly decreased lead content in blood, brain, heart, spleen, liver and kidney in the lead-exposed neonatal mice. The levels of malondialdehyde in the brain, liver and kidney were significantly reduced, and superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities were significantly increased after chrysophanol treatment. Collectively, these findings indicate that chrysophanol can significantly reduce damage to hippocampal neurons in lead-exposed neonatal mice.

Kinetics of thymocyte developmental process in fetal and neonatal mice

Kinetics of thymocyte development in vivo during embryogenesis was pursued. The early development of thymocytes in the fetal and neonatal BALB/c mice was discontinuous, with four waves of cell proliferation occurring at fetal day (Fd) 14 to 17, Fd 18 to day (D) 1 after birth, D 2 to D 5 and D6 thereafter. The first three proliferation waves coincided with the generation of CD4/'CD8/' (DP), TCR+CD4/hiCD8-/lo (CD4 SP), and TCR+CD4-/loCD8int/hi (CD8 SP) thymocytes, respectively. The transition from DN to DP cells was further investigated and it was found out that there were two differential pathways via immature single positive (ISP) cells in the BALB/c mice, each functioning at different fetal ages. One is via TCR-CD4-CD8+ cells, occurring between Fd 15 and Fd 17 and the other is via TCR-CD4+CD8- cells, occurring from Fd 17 until birth. In contrast, the TCR-CD4-CD8+ pathway dominated overwhelmingly in the C57BL/6 mice. These findings shed new light on the hypothesis that the differential pathway preference varies with mouse strains. With respect to the shift in the intensity of CD4 and CD8 expression on thymocytes from fetal to adult mice, the TCR+CD4/hiCD8-/lo, and TCR+CD4-/loCD8int/hi subsets might be equivalent to the medullary type TCR+CD4/CD8 SP cells.

Spatial learning and memory deficits in young adult mice exposed to a brief intense noise at postnatal age

Noise pollution is a major hazardous factor to human health and is likely harmful for vulnerable groups such as pre-term infants under lifesupport system in an intensive care unit. Previous studies have suggested that noise exposure impairs children’s learning ability and cognitive performance and cognitive functions in animal models in which the effect is mainly attributed to the oxidant stress of noise on the cognitive brain. The potential role of noise induced hearing loss(NIHL), rather than the oxidant stress, has also been indicated by a depression of neurogenesis in the hippocampus long after a brief noise exposure, which produces only a tentative oxidant stress. It is not clear if noise exposure and NIHL during early development exerts a long term impact on cognitive function and neurogenesis towards adulthood. In the present study, a brief noise exposure at high sound level was performed in neonatal C57BL/6J mice(15 days after birth) to produce a significant amount of permanent hearing loss as proved 2 months after the noise. At this age, the noise-exposed animals showed deteriorated spatial learning and memory abilities and a reduction of hippocampal neurogenesis as compared with the control. The averaged hearing threshold was found to be strongly correlated with the scores for spatial learning and memory. We consider the effects observed are largely due to the loss of hearing sensitivity, rather than the oxidant stress, due to the long interval between noise exposure and the observations.