Avaliação do envolvimento da leptina no desenvolvimento de camundongos leptin reporters submetidos a anóxia neonatal.

Abstract

Neonatal anoxia is considered a relevant clinical condition and has been studied in the Neuroscience Laboratory, ICB-USP, since 2008. Damage caused to an organism during its maturation, particularly the damage that affects the high-metabolic nervous system, can modify or even compromise ontogenetic events with persistant complications in adulthood. Such complications are related to cognitive and behavioral retardation, and some known examples are: epilepsy, attention deficit, hyperactivity and learning problems. In adult rats, neuronal death occurs due to apoptosis, necrosis, decreased neurogenesis and decreased volume in the hippocampus after neonatal anoxia. Behavioral experiments also revealed changes in learning ability, spatial navigation and anxiety. It was also observed that neonatal anoxia causes delay in sensorimotor development, besides weight gain in relation to the control, and increase in the rostrocaudal and naso-anal diameter. In order to evaluate the causes of such somatic and developmental changes, this study analyzed the relationship between the hypothalamus and leptin, as well as their relationship with energy metabolism and the growth of the organism. Leptin reporter mice were used, which present naturally fluorescent leptin receptors. The anoxia model was adapted for male mice by means of the following tests: evaluation of the ontogeny of reflexes, the oxygen pressure in the blood, the heart rate and the levels on the Apgar Scale. These tests revealed damages to the anoxic animals by the appearance of different reflexes: acceleration, negative geotaxis, recovery of decubitus and response to scare; there was significant decrease in oxygen pressure and heart rate during exposure to the anoxic environment, in addition to levels in the Apgar scale which are indicative of oxygen absence when contrasted with control. Male and female anoxic groups and control were analyzed with respect to body parameters for a period of 60 days, and evaluated of leptin levels, Nissl staining and c-fos cell count by stereology performed. It was verified that neonatal anoxia affected the parameters in different ways, but overall the male anoxic group presented increased dimensions in relation to the other groups. Results obtained from the co-localization of fos and activated fluorescent leptin receptors suggest that, although it is not possible to observe differences in leptin values in the blood, the change in body weight of anoxic animals was due to a lack of activation of leptin receptors in arched and dorsomedial nuclei, suggesting a resistance to the effects of this hormone, hypothesis that should be explored in future experiments.