TY - JOUR T1 - Protective Effects of Enriched Environment Against Transient Cerebral Ischemia-Induced Impairment of Passive Avoidance Memory and Long-Term Potentiation in Rats TT - JF - BCN JO - BCN VL - 8 IS - 6 UR - http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-860-en.html Y1 - 2017 SP - 443 EP - 452 KW - Enriched environment KW - Brain ischemia KW - Long-term potentiation KW - Memory N2 - Introduction: Enriched Environment (EE), a complex novel environment, has been demonstrated to improve synaptic plasticity in both injured and intact animals. The present study investigated the capacity of an early environmental intervention to normalize the impairment of passive avoidance memory and Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) induced by transient bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2-vessel occlusion, 2VO) in rats. Methods: After weaning, young Wistar rats (22 days old) were housed in EE or Standard Environment (SE) for 40 days. Transient (30-min) incomplete forebrain ischemia was induced 4 days before the passive avoidance memory test and LTP induction. Results: The transient forebrain ischemia led to impairment of passive avoidance memory and LTP induction in the Perforant Path-Dentate Gyrus (PP-DG) synapses. Interestingly, housing and growing in EE prior to 2VO was found to significantly reverse 2VO-induced cognitive and LTP impairments. Conclusion: Our results suggest that early housing and growing in EE exhibits therapeutic potential to normalize cognitive and LTP abnormalities induced by 2VO ischemic model in rats. M3 10.29252/nirp.bcn.8.6.443 ER -