Stereological quantification of cellular populations in the prefrontal cortex of rats submitted to prenatal protein malnutrition

• Grant number: 12/11307-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: February 28, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Dentistry
• Principal Investigator: Roelf Justino Cruz-Rizzolo
• Grantee: Laís Leal Limieri
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia (FOA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Prenatal protein malnutrition (PPM) is considered a serious public health concern, affecting a significant portion of the world's population. Epidemiological studies indicate that protein prenatal deprivation may represent risk factors for the late onset of some mental and psychiatric disorders, fundamentally schizophrenia, condition where the prefrontal cortex plays a fundamental role. In view of this correlation between these neuropsychiatric conditions and PPM, it remains to be seen if some of the structural changes found mainly in the prefrontal cortex of patients in these situations may be reproduced in experimental models. Thus, in the present study, using a model of rat PPM we will quantify some cellular populations in the newborn and young rat prefrontal cortex, using unbiased stereological analysis. This quantification shall include the global neuronal population revealed by NeuN immunohistochemistry; neuronal populations that express calcium binding proteins, such as parvalbumin, calbindin and calretinin, which represent more than 90% of all the GABAergic neurons of the cerebral cortex, allowing the analyses of the possible changes in the circuits of this neurotransmitter; neurons that expressing reelin, a glycoprotein synthesized by a subgroup of GABAergic neurons, that plays an important role during neuronal migration and sinapotogenesis, and whose quantitative change is associated with cognitive deficits and in PPM experimental models; and the astrocytic population in the mPfC using GFAP (glial fibrillary acid protein) immunohistochemistry. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CRUZ-RIZZOLO, ROELF J.; LIMIERI, LAIS LEAL; DE PAIVA, ISABELA ROGERIO; BARBOSA RIBEIRO, JESSICA O.; PIMENTA, TAIS FERNANDES; PINATO, LUCIANA; ERVOLINO, EDILSON; CASATTI, CLAUDIO APARECIDO; GUISSONI CAMPOS, LEILA M.; LIBERTI, EDSON APARECIDO. Protein malnutrition during gestation and early life decreases neuronal size in the medial prefrontal cortex of post-pubertal rats. IBRO REPORTS, v. 3, p. 7-pg., 2017-12-01. (12/03067-6, 12/13433-0, 12/11307-7)