Enriched environment and physical activity stimulate hippocampal but not olfactory bulb neurogenesis

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Jason Brown - , University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Christiana M. Cooper-Kuhn - , University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Gerd Kempermann - , Department of Neurology, Chair of Genomics of Regeneration, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Author)
  • Henriette Van Praag - , Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Author)
  • Jürgen Winkler - , University of Regensburg (Author)
  • Fred H. Gage - , Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Author)
  • H. Georg Kuhn - , University of Regensburg (Author)

Abstract

Exposure to an enriched environment and physical activity, such as voluntary running, increases neurogenesis of granule cells in the dentate gyrus of adult mice. These stimuli are also known to improve performance in hippocampus-dependent learning tasks, but it is unclear whether their effects on neurogenesis are exclusive to the hippocampal formation. In this study, we housed adult mice under three conditions (enriched environment, voluntary wheel running and standard housing), and analysed proliferation in the lateral ventricle wall and granule cell neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb in comparison to the dentate gyrus. Using bromodeoxyuridine to label dividing cells, we could not detect any difference in the number of newly generated cells in the ventricle wall. When giving the new cells time to migrate and differentiate in the olfactory bulb, we observed no changes in the number of adult-generated olfactory granule cells; however, voluntary running and enrichment produced a doubling in the amount of new hippocampal granule cells. The discrepancy between the olfactory bulb and the dentate gyrus suggests that these living conditions trigger locally through an as yet unidentified mechanism specific to neurogenic signals in the dentate gyrus.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2042-2046
Number of pages5
JournalEuropean journal of neuroscience
Volume17
Issue number10
Publication statusPublished - May 2003
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 12786970
ORCID /0000-0002-5304-4061/work/161408188

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Environmental stimulation, Exercise, Mouse, Proliferation