Binge alcohol alters exercise-driven neuroplasticity. (20th February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barton, Emily A.; Lu, Yanbin; Megjhani, Murad; Maynard, Mark E.; Kulkarni, Prathamesh M.; Roysam, Badrinath; Leasure, J. Leigh
• Is Part Of: Neuroscience. Volume 343(2017)
• Page Start: 165
• Page End: 173
• Publication Date: 2017-02-20
• Subjects: AUD alcohol use disorder -- BEC blood ethanol concentration -- DAPI 4′, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole -- GFAP glial fibrillary acidic protein -- LASSO Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator -- mPFC medial prefrontal cortex -- TBS tris-buffered saline -- TNF-α tumor necrosis factor; microglia -- medial prefrontal cortex -- binge alcohol consumption -- exercise; Neurochemistry -- Periodicals; Neurophysiology -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; Neurochimie -- Périodiques; Neurophysiologie -- Périodiques; Neurochemistry; Neurophysiology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.11.041
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-4522

Abstract

Graphical abstract: Highlights: Binge alcohol exerts a prolonged influence on cortical microglia morphology. Exercise increases cortical microglia. Binge alcohol suppresses this exercise-driven increase in microglia. Abstract: Exercise is increasingly being used as a treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUD), but the interactive effects of alcohol and exercise on the brain remain largely unexplored. Alcohol damages the brain, in part by altering glial functioning. In contrast, exercise promotes glial health and plasticity. In the present study, we investigated whether binge alcohol would attenuate the effects of subsequent exercise on glia. We focused on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an alcohol-vulnerable region that also undergoes neuroplastic changes in response to exercise. Adult female Long-Evans rats were gavaged with ethanol (25% w/v) every 8 h for 4 days. Control animals received an isocaloric, non-alcohol diet. After 7 days of abstinence, rats remained sedentary or exercised for 4 weeks. Immunofluorescence was then used to label microglia, astrocytes, and neurons in serial tissue sections through the mPFC. Confocal microscope images were processed using FARSIGHT, a computational image analysis toolkit capable of automated analysis of cell number and morphology. We found that exercise increased the number of microglia in the mPFC in control animals. Binged animals that exercised, however, had significantly fewer microglia. Furthermore, computational arbor analytics revealed that the binged animals (regardless of exercise) had microglia with thicker, shorter arbors and significantly less branching, suggestive of partial activation. We found no changes in the number or morphology of mPFC astrocytes. We conclude that binge alcohol exerts a prolonged effect on morphology of mPFC microglia and limits the capacity of exercise to increase their numbers.